Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy sounds like a man who’s prepared to keep four quarterbacks on the team’s initial 53-man roster.
The Steelers wrapped up their final preseason game Thursday night against the Buffalo Bills, with Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph sitting out. Will Howard took the first-half snaps at quarterback in the 28-27 loss, with Drew Allar handling the third and fourth quarters.
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When asked if all four quarterbacks had earned roster spots, McCarthy said that would be “a very accurate evaluation.”
McCarthy has never kept four in his 18 seasons as a head coach. But he’s been dropping bread crumbs all August, suggesting that four quarterbacks would be a strong possibility.
“I feel good about the quarterback room,” McCarthy said, via ESPN.com. “I’ve been saying it for quite some time, and they’ve shown it on the field. We got two veterans that we can win with, and we got two young guys that we’re excited about the future.”
Howard, who also started the Steelers’ second preseason game, completed 9-of-15 pass attempts for 69 yards and two TDs, also throwing an interception and taking three sacks. He was evaluated for a possible concussion during and after the game.
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Allar, who has had a strong camp and preseason, completed 9-of-18 passes for 88 yards, with no sacks. His last-minute comeback attempt fell short with three straight incompletions to end the game.
Keeping four QBs is rare, but there’s sense behind it
Keeping four quarterbacks wouldn’t just be novel to McCarthy. It’s unusual on a league level, too. The last team believed to do so was the 2021 Saints.
In fact, the more recent league-wide trend for the past decade-plus has been to favor fewer QBs on the active roster, not more. At Cutdown Day in 2025, 19 teams kept two quarterbacks and 13 kept three. None had four.
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So how should Steelers fans take this news? Positively.
On the one hand, you could argue that a fourth quarterback would take a roster spot away from someone else. While nominally true, it’s fair to question the value of the 53rd man – a likely inactive most games, anyway – vs. stashing a potential starter or backup in the future.
Rudolph might be the clear-cut backup to Rodgers right now, but he’s also a free agent this spring. The Steelers could groom what possibly might be their top two quarterbacks for next season on the side, and in a league that constantly gripes about QB development, that would be about as proactive and thorough an approach as we’ll see these days.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Will Howard (18) throws a pass against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, NY., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
It’s also a sign that McCarthy sees real value in both Howard and Allar. It would have been extremely hard to imagine Allar, a third-round rookie, not making the initial roster, so this was as much about Howard’s performance as anything. Although he had some tough moments Thursday, and he has three INTs in the past two games combined, Howard reportedly had enough strong play early in camp to make him a candidate to stick around longer.
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According to local reports, there are a handful of players at other positions who could be affected by the four-QB possibility. Seventh-round RB-WR Eli Heidenreich out of Navy is a fan favorite battling for one of the final slots. RB Kaleb Johnson, a third-round pick in 2025, appears to be in real danger for a spot. Veteran LB Malik Harrison and OTs Broderick Jones and Jack Driscoll are other highly debated players who could end up on the cutting-room floor.
One possible option to stash Will Howard
The Steelers do have another option available. Depending on the results of Thursday’s tests, they could opt to place him on injured reserve on Sunday as a way of keeping him but not having to place him on the 53-man roster. Each team can place up to two players on IR with a “designated to return” tag, counting against the season-long limit of eight IR-return designations.
In this scenario, Howard would be forced to miss the first four games of the season. Once he’s cleared, the 21-day practice window would open for Howard, and the Steelers would need to activate him at the end of that window or be prepared to move him to season-ending IR.
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That possibility could exist. The Steelers probably are not prepared to play all four quarterbacks this season, and almost certainly not all four in the first month of the season. So the main question left would be whether they prefer Howard or Allar as the third option behind Rodgers and Rudolph.
It might be a functional way to keep another non-QB on the roster early. The Steelers can then evaluate Howard carefully and wait for other injuries in order to keep their roster options flexible. Keeping four could be a reasonable approach, but there’s also another way to exploit the rules – fairly – and maintain the long-term vision and plan.
