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Yes, the Pittsburgh Steelers placed their unrestricted free agent tender on veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who led the team to a 10-7 AFC North title last season… but he hasn’t signed a contract yet, and we don’t definitively know who the team’s starting quarterback is in 2026.
That brings us to second-year quarterback Will Howard and rookie Drew Allar. Who does Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger, the franchise leader with 64,088 passing yards and 418 passing touchdowns, prefer?
“I’m still not sure if I love him or hate him. I don’t watch a lot of Penn State games. When I watched him, he never jumped off the page,” Roethlisberger said of Allar, whom Pittsburgh selected with the 76th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, on his podcast, “Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger.”
“Is he big? Can he move? Can he throw? Yes. But there was never a moment where I was like, ‘Wow.’ … The jury is still out for me right now. Again, there was nothing that stood out to me. Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know. We’ll see about that.”
As for the other former Big Ten signal caller?
“Will Howard jumped off the tape for me a lot more than Drew [Allar] he did,” Roethlisberger said.
The Steelers selected Howard in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Howard spent the first four seasons of his college career with the Kansas State Wildcats (2020-23) before transferring to play for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2024, with whom he won the National Championship.
In said championship season (2024), Howard totaled 4,010 passing yards, 35 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a passer rating of 175.3, while completing 73.0% of his passes. Howard led the Big Ten in passing yards, passing touchdowns and completion percentage, while rushing for 226 yards and seven touchdowns. He did not appear in any games during his 2025 rookie season.
As for Allar, the former five-star Penn State recruit’s 2025 campaign was cut short after six games due to a broken ankle. During his two healthy seasons as the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback (2023-24), the 6-foot-5 Allar averaged 2,979 passing yards, 24.5 touchdown passes, five interceptions and a 145.2 passer rating for the year, while completing 63.2% of his passes. In 2024, Allar helped Penn State reach the College Football Playoff semifinals and led the Big Ten with 25 touchdown passes in 2023.
In total, Pittsburgh’s quarterback room currently includes Allar, Howard and Mason Rudolph, who has made a combined 14 starts in his two stints with the Steelers (2018-23 and 2025-present).
