Mike McCarthy Has Strong Words For the Steelers' Quarterback Room

The Pittsburgh Steelers spent most of the offseason wondering whether they had enough certainty behind Aaron Rodgers. One preseason game later, Mike McCarthy may have discovered a much friendlier problem: all three quarterbacks who played against the Green Bay Packers gave him reasons to keep watching closely. Pittsburgh's 28-9 win did not settle the room. It made the room harder to sort.

Mason Rudolph opened the night looking like the veteran he is, Will Howard followed with an uneven start before finishing the first half with the kind of drive coaches remember, and Drew Allar turned his first NFL preseason appearance into the loudest performance of the group.

The numbers explain why McCarthy sounded pleased afterward. Rudolph completed 10 of 11 passes for 93 yards, Howard went 7 of 9 for 86, and Allar completed 10 of 13 for 153 yards with two touchdown passes. Allar also ran for a score, and none of Pittsburgh's three quarterbacks threw an interception.

Rodgers remains the obvious starter, but everything behind him has carried some uncertainty. Rudolph offers experience and has won meaningful games for Pittsburgh. Howard entered the summer trying to turn a developmental 2025 season into a push for the backup job, while Allar, a third-round rookie, is being developed with a longer timeline in mind.

That made the Packers game less about finding one winner and more about seeing whether anybody would create separation. Pittsburgh's first preseason audition gave McCarthy something slightly different: nobody made himself easy to dismiss.

Howard probably benefited most from the way his night developed. His first stretch included some of the “peaks and valleys” McCarthy later referenced, but the final 1:53 of the first half looked much cleaner. Howard guided Pittsburgh 80 yards in eight plays, completing all four of his passes for 70 yards before the Steelers finished the possession with a 1-yard rushing touchdown.

That sequence mattered because Howard's evaluation has never been only about whether he can make an impressive throw in practice. The question is whether he can stabilize himself when something goes wrong, move to the next snap and operate the offense when the clock starts squeezing the field.

During his postgame press conference, McCarthy sounded particularly encouraged by that part of Howard's night.

“I really like the room, I think it’s a really good quarterback room,” McCarthy said. “I thought they played that way tonight. Will had some peaks and valleys there with some things that didn’t go quite right. I thought he did a really good job with his composure, playing through the two-minute drill was excellent. I really liked the performance of all three quarterbacks tonight.”

That is useful praise for Howard because composure is one of the few things a coach cannot fully reproduce on a training-camp field. A drill can put 1:53 on the clock, but it cannot create the same feeling as entering an NFL stadium, struggling early and knowing the next possession may become the lasting image of your first professional game action.

Howard responded well, and his final drive gave McCarthy evidence that a rough patch did not send the second-year quarterback searching for the exits. It still was not the biggest quarterback story of the evening, because Allar made sure of that after halftime.

The rookie accounted for Pittsburgh's final three touchdowns, scoring on a 3-yard run before throwing two touchdown passes. His 153 passing yards led the game, and he finished with a 154.8 passer rating in a debut that looked considerably calmer than most first NFL appearances.

Allar's performance complicates the room in a different way. The Steelers did not draft him in the third round to win a preseason trophy, and one strong night does not accelerate him into Rodgers' chair. It does, however, give the coaching staff a better idea of what it has to work with against an opponent rather than only teammates in Latrobe.

Rudolph should not get lost in the younger quarterbacks' excitement, either. He was the most efficient passer of the three, completing all but one of his attempts while moving the offense consistently. There was nothing about his performance that suggested Pittsburgh should casually move on from the security an experienced backup provides.

McCarthy is therefore left with the sort of preseason tension coaches say they want until it becomes time to make an actual decision. Three quarterbacks played, all three provided something useful, and the evaluation became more crowded rather than less.

Steelers Can Let The Quarterback Room Get Somewhat Uncomfortable

There is no requirement that Pittsburgh solve this immediately. Final roster decisions do not arrive until the end of August, and one exhibition game should not outweigh an entire summer of practices, meetings and evaluations.

The better development is that McCarthy does not have to manufacture competition. Rudolph looked steady, Howard absorbed a shaky stretch and produced the two-minute drive his coach highlighted, and Allar provided the fireworks. Each quarterback made a different argument, which gives Pittsburgh more useful information than if one player had simply fallen apart.

The next games will matter because repetition changes the standard. One impressive drive can be encouraging, while two or three strong outings start becoming evidence. Howard will need to show that his composure carries from one opportunity to the next, Allar has to prove his debut was more than a rookie heater against preseason personnel, and Rudolph has to keep making experience look like an advantage rather than merely something on his résumé.

McCarthy entered Thursday saying he liked his quarterback room, and a 28-9 win supplied plenty of ammunition for that opinion. The three passers finished 27 of 33 for 332 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Eventually, Pittsburgh will have to turn a crowded room into an actual depth chart. For one night, though, McCarthy's biggest quarterback problem was that everyone gave him a reason to keep the conversation going.

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