Steelers' Controversial Quarterback Plan Gets Brought To Light

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a very interesting quarterback situation on their hands. With Aaron Rodgers coming back into the picture, there are three quarterbacks that need to prove themselves. Third-round rookie Drew Allar seems to be a lock to make the 53-man roster due to his draft status, so that leaves Mason Rudolph and Will Howard to battle it out for the final spot if that is true. One is an experienced veteran that has won some key games in relief in the past while the other has no experience at all. 

The ongoing debate is about what is more important: Rudolph's experience or Howard's upside. The 30-year-old knows what is expected of him and has earned the trust of his teammates from past experiences. Meanwhile, the former sixth-round pick could easily be much worse than him due to never playing a snap before, but he could also be much better due to his youth and knowledge gained from working with Rodgers.

However, there seems to be a more sinister option for the Steelers: one where they can keep all four quarterbacks. In his weekly Q&A chat, insider Ray Fittipaldo explained a tactic that Pittsburgh might use to not lose any of their potential signal-callers if all of them play well. 

"If Will Howard plays well this summer, Rudolph is likely No. 3," Fittipaldo said. "I think they will find a way to get Allar onto [Injured Reserve] IR. Or maybe someone else gets hurt."

Throughout the chat, Fittipaldo kept alluding to this idea, like saying "it won't come to that" when asked if Howard would get cut. If all four quarterbacks stay healthy with Howard and Rudolph both playing well enough to keep the new coaching staff's trust, Allar may be relegated to taking mental reps until someone else gets injured and the Steelers need a third passer. 

By the time the Steelers need to cut down the roster, the media won't be allowed to watch the main portions of the practices. That way, they could easily say that he suffered some odd injury in practice like a jammed finger or a sprained ankle. If he did have some sort of minor injury prior to this time, they could use that as the excuse to put him on IR and say he has not progressed as well as they hoped. 

This could be somewhat detrimental to Allar. He needs all the reps he can get to fix his mechanics. It doesn't make sense for the coaching staff to "uninstall" everything mechanically and then halt the process of reinstalling it when the season gets going. He does need to work on the mental part of the game as well, but his biggest issue is his mechanics. He can't work on them when he's not allowed to practice.

Steelers Have Already Utilized A Similar Stunt

Early on in the 2025 training camp, Howard suffered a broken finger that was supposed to keep him out of preseason. In his absence, Skylar Thompson looked great, forcing the team brass to make a decision on who to keep. Even though the sixth-round rookie was almost completely healed up, they stashed him on IR and kept Thompson on as the third-string quarterback. 

Eventually, Thompson landed on IR, and that's about when the Steelers decided to activate Howard and allow him to practice again. He had plenty of mental reps behind Rodgers, and that might have been good for him, since his mechanics are not nearly as rough as Allar's. Once he was brought back, he looked poised and confident in practice, leading to plenty of praise from his peers.

What do you think about the Steelers possibly stashing Allar on IR whether he's truly injured or not? Let us know on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.

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