Off to a good start: Coach Mike McCarthy hasn't been shy about talking about the team's four quarterbacks during the offseason and training camp, even saying at times that you can't have too many quarterbacks.
The praise he has bestowed on them showed up front and center on Thursday night in the team's preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers.
With starter Aaron Rodgers sitting this one out, a combination of Mason Rudolph, Will Howard and rookie Drew Allar led the Steelers to a 28-9 win at Acrisure Stadium.
Rudolph started the game, completing seven of nine passes for 86 yards, followed by Howard, playing in his first NFL game after missing the 2025 season injured, who completed 10 of 11 passes for 93 yards. It was Allar who secured the win, completing 10 of 13 passes for 153 yards and two touchdown passes, while also rushing for a three-yard touchdown.
"I really liked the quarterback play," said McCarthy. "Not to be a broken record, I've been talking about it pretty much since the spring.
"I really like the room. I think it's a really good quarterback room, and I thought they played that way. The first series a little bump where we had the sack on the double-A blitz, but I thought Mason, I don't know, was it 16-, 17-, 18-play drive. It's exactly what I was looking for from him.
"I thought both Will and Drew -- Will had some peaks and valleys there because of some things that didn't go quite right. I thought he did a really good job of his composure. Playing through the two-minute drill was excellent. I even thought about giving Drew a two-minute drill at the end there. When you get to that point in the game, you worry about just being healthy and so forth.
"I really liked the performance of all three quarterbacks tonight."
McCarthy overall had a positive assessment of the game, his first one coaching his hometown Steelers and the first one for a unit and coaching staff working together for the first time. The one thing he wants to work on are the penalties, as the Steelers were penalized 11 times for 134 yards.
"We wanted to come in here, win the game," said McCarthy. "You have to win as a football team and at different levels. Winning the run game. You've got to build that. I'm not just talking about the final score.
"I wanted to make sure we were very cognizant of the line of scrimmage, playing the right way, play style. I thought we got off to a good start. The obvious negative is the penalties are way too high, the personal fouls.
"So we'll go through each and every one of them. It's important for us to be extremely accountable. This is an excellent game to grade as a coaching staff because there's a lot of good things that went on out there. It's good to get a win at home and feel that. Especially, it's our first time together. But we all have -- me included, we had some things that we had to adjust to today because of things that happened last minute today administratively. It's year one. It's year one for me in this program. It was our first game. We have a lot to clean up, but the passing game, I understand probably numbers were pretty -- I haven't seen the stats, but I know the numbers were pretty good, but I liked the way our quarterbacks ran the offense, and that's a big thing.
"It may be simple. Maybe I talk about it too much, the communication from the -- you are getting the play entry in there, the tempo in the huddle. We're going to be better coming out of the huddle. I didn't think we were super clean. I didn't like the snap of how we're going to play.
"It's good to get that on tape, but for the most part, this is a good start for us. It's a good start."
Finally getting his shot: Second-year quarterback Will Howard hadn't played in a game since he led the Ohio State Buckeyes to a National Championship over Notre Dame on January 20, 2025.
After missing his rookie season with a hand injury, Howard was thrilled to be back in action on Thursday night in the Steelers preseason opener against the Packers.
"Grateful is the only word that I can think of," said Howard. "I'm grateful that God gave me this opportunity to come back my second year and get a chance to play because last year…it hurts not being able to go out there and do what you love and working on it and all the work that I felt like I had put in. I felt like I was ready last year, but obviously sometimes things happen and you don't get that opportunity. Injuries happen.
"But it makes you appreciate the times you are able to go out there even more. It gave me a good perspective on how to approach these games and how to approach every day because nothing is guaranteed. I'm blessed and thankful that I got the opportunity to come back and play football again."
Howard entered the game in the second quarter, following Mason Rudolph, and opened the second half before giving way to rookie Drew Allar. He completed 10 of 11 passes for 93 yards.
Howard led the team on a touchdown drive in the two-minute offense, capping it off with a Lew Nichols touchdown run.
"That first drive, obviously the jitters are going, and you're trying to settle into it, and there was a couple of plays that maybe I want back," said Howard. "Obviously nothing super glaring. Just to be able to have an opportunity to work that two-minute drive at the end of the half was huge because we've been drilling that since day one of camp. We did it so much in OTAs. I think we've done two-minute every single day of camp, and I've gotten a ton of reps of it, and it's really paid off.
"Really the whole team, we've just been drilling those, two-minute situations, the game management situations, and I just thought we handled it really well."
A strong first impression: Steelers fans who were anxious to see what Drew Allar would bring to the offense were no doubt pleased with the rookie quarterback's first preseason game.
Allar, the Steelers third-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft out of Penn State, completed 10 of 13 passes for 153 yards and two touchdown passes, while also rushing for a three-yard touchdown.
"I think my job as a quarterback is to go out and put up points no matter what the situation is, so I feel like we did a good job with that," said Allar. "It wasn't just me out there. I had 10 other guys and the coaching staff, and obviously with Coach (Mike) McCarthy calling the plays. But the whole offensive staff doing a great job of getting us into successful plays and allowing us to go out there and be successful.
"It's a total team effort, and then obviously defense and special teams did a really good job. It wasn't just one phase or one player that won the game."
Allar entered the game in the third quarter, and his first pass was a completion to Kaden Wetjen around the Steelers 35-yard line, which Wetjen broke down the sideline for a 74-yard gain to the Packers three-yard line. Allar capped the drive taking it himself for a three-yard touchdown run.
It was a drive that made him feel right at home on the field at Acrisure Stadium.
"Football is football no matter what," said Allar. "I feel like the adjustment for me at the NFL level came during rookie OTAs and OTAs, in general. More specifically, with this training camp cycle and going against a great defense every day with a challenging scheme that really challenges us as an offense. I feel like that mentally prepared me to go out there and just handle everything.
"The first rushing touchdown I had was the first hit I've had in I don't know how long, since mid-October. I feel like that got the physical part out of the way. Going against our defense every day in practice really helped me mentally prepare for the game."
