Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Will Howard was placed on injured reserve after the team cut its roster down to 53 players, which will force him to miss at least the first four games of the 2025 campaign.
Howard suffered a broken pinky on a center-quarterback exchange on Aug. 5 and was initially given a timeline to return of at least three weeks.
However, Howard wasn't able to make it back fast enough for the Steelers to keep him off injured reserve. Moving Howard to the list enabled Pittsburgh to keep quarterback Skylar Thompson after his impressive offseason.
So, when is Howard expected to be at full health? And will we even see him play in 2025? Here's what we know.
Will Howard injury update
Howard was a guest on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday and said that he's going to be "back to throwing this week" and noted his finger is "feeling good" and "going in the right direction."
This basically echoes what head coach Mike Tomlin said before final cuts, when he revealed that Howard would be back to full participation soon.
“He’s had some positive reviews meeting with the hand specialist,” he explained, according to Chris Adamski of TribLive.com.
“We’ve increased his level of activity. We’ve altered the brace that you mentioned, so he’s moving in the right direction in terms of full participation very soon.”
Is Will Howard going to play in 2025?
Howard was always a long shot to play during his rookie campaign thanks to having Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph in front of him. It would take a catastrophic injury situation for Howard to see the field.
Making it more unlikely he plays this year is the fact that he's on injured reserve, where, in the opinion of Steelers beat writer Mark Kaboly, he could be stashed throughout the entire season.
"Howard was not immediately designated to return when placed on the IR, but can be added to that list at any time. However, if you feel so inclined to be a conspiracy theorist, the Steelers did not automatically designate Howard to return like they did with Cory Trice the day before, even if Tomlin did say earlier in the week that Howard was trending toward being a full participant 'soon,'" Kaboly wrote.
"Sitting out the entire year is a real possibility."
Again, Howard was always highly unlikely to see the field for significant snaps in 2025, so his absence won't be a huge impact on Pittsburgh this year.
That said, not being able to practice while on injured reserve could hurt his development, Kaboly believes.
"That’s yet to be determined, but either way, the Steelers didn’t do Howard any favors by putting him on injured reserve," Kaboly added. "I truly believe that.
"They are stunting his growth, especially if he would be fully healthy soon, like Tomlin pretty much said he was."
The Steelers would be better served cutting Thompson and activating Howard at some point down the line, if for no other reason than getting the rookie some practice reps.
And if things go south for Pittsburgh this coming season, the Steelers should deploy Howard to gauge whether or not he's even got a chance of becoming the team's next starting quarterback in 2026.
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