Will Howard

Mason is probably somewhere around an average backup. Maybe even a little above average.

And after almost getting drummed out of the league, I bet he appreciates being here.

He's a good guy to have on the roster IMO. Cap hit < $5MM this year.

 

Rudolph is your main concern

Really

I see bigger holes

 

This is true
And we actually have a coaching staff
With a coach that has actually developed qbs

 

Who said it was my main concern?

 

to not show "interest" is lazy

 

@MojoUW asked me in one thread, what QB development and team building has MM actually done for him to have earned this reputation. So...I went on the interweb and did some research on it. The ONLY QB of note that MM has drafted is Brett Hundley in the 5th round of the 2015 draft. Now, McCarthy was hired by the Packers for the 2006 season, and Rodgers was drafted in 2005, so maybe he some gets credit for Arod's career? MM went to coach Dallas in 2020, and Dak had been the QB since 2016. Although, MM did get the Cowboys to 3 consecutive 12-5 seasons, I don't believe Dak had some big leap during those years.
All this to say, I don't have an answer for @MojoUW.

Now, as you point out, it could be the staff around MM that is developing QBs. Our QB coach is still Tom Arth. I don't know anything about our new OC. I need to take some time and research him a bit before the draft gets here. Try to get some idea how this group will approach draft 2026.

My opinion only. For this draft, QBs that have not taken snaps from under Center should be taken off the draft board. I know about Big Ben and how he hated direct snaps, but there are no Big Bens in this draft. If the plan is to go with a rookie QB, we have one already. Use Will Howard first.

 

I found another one....https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BrooAa00.htm

McCarthy was offensive coordinator from 2000-2004. I think he gets credit for whatever anyone thinks of Aaron Brooks. Because it certainly wasn't Jim Haslett doing QB things.

 

In my opinion Will Howard has a steep hill to climb to get to starting QB, I doubt Mcarthy took the job with the idea of "developing" Will Howard, I'm sure Mcarthy has his guy already in mind.

 

This SI article gives a brief synopsis on the subject as far as the on the field practical. Personally, I don't care about what he did in the past as much as I do moving forward. I believe McCarthy and Arth have a very good rookie QB to work with in Will Howard. As good as any they might draft in this draft. Arth has already been working with Will since the last draft, which I think is important.
https://www.si.com/nfl/steelers/ons...eelers-mike-mccarthy-quarterback-track-record

 

If you look past what MM "claims" you can see it is a pattern of exaggerated claims during the interview process, that MM doesn't even really believe.

MM worked with Alex Smith his rookie year while Smith went 2-5 in his 7 starts and completed 50% of his passes with 1 TD and 11 INTs.

MM was the o coordinator during Aaron Brooks first 4 seasons. Look up the stats and judge for yourself how impressed you are with the work there.

MM can claim Matt Flynn: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/F/FlynMa00.htm -- for what you may judge that is worth. Flynn played out his career as a pretty good back-up QB.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/G/GannRi00.htm -- Rich Gannon and MM were in KC together while Gannon was the back-up/starter with Grbac. Then Gannon left and took off with Oakland. MM claims it is him. Some say it was Jon Gruden once Gannon got to Oakland. Again, form your own opinions.

The one extremely hard to deny success story is Aaron Rodgers. You can visually see that MM rebuilt Rodgers mechanics. Now, Rodgers had some good college stats: https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/aaron-rodgers-1.html and Rodgers was almost universally regarded as a first round pick. The biggest knock was that he was a "tedford qb" and viewed as mechanically rigid and robotic.

You can read about it here: https://www.espn.com/nfl/draft05/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli_len&id=2039797 and here: https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl...ng-packers-draft-mvp/gywqhu5wifeau6gzt0ilawi4

Almost all Tedford Qbs ended up being NFL busts (Harrington, Boller, Smith). The two success stories are Qbs that developed out of being rigid and robotic and then flourished - Goff and Rodgers. Rodgers shed it earlier and became a HOF Qb. Goff did it later and took his game to another level.

Now, most living former NFL Qbs when asked to identify the "best" QB they have seen throw the ball, identify Rodgers. I've never read anyone doubting Goff's physical capabilities, just his mental approach.

So, the question is....did MM rewire Rodgers brain and unleash his natural abilities or was that who Rodgers was going to be no matter what once he left Tedford's system? All those that failed, would say no. The similar journey that Goff took might say possible.

But, lets give MM Aaron Rodgers. The rest? Look dubious at best. Certainly his claims for Montana, Prescott, and Favre are highly suspect. Smith as well. Flynn is his. Gannon, I figure he gets some credit but Gruden should likely get the lions share.

Long story short...MM QB whisperer status rests largely (solely?) on how you judge his role in Aaron Rodgers career.

 

They have seen him. Just because we haven't means nothing, because we won't be making the decisions.

 

Oh Geez that's a bad thing. I had a roommate during that time that was our bass player, and we both had Sunday ticket, and if the Steelers, and the Saints didn't play at the same time, we watched each other's games. I wouldn't use Aaron Brooks as a reference. LOL

 

Some of these boys look great on college and camps, but game time is a different breed.

 

It isn't about whether or not I like him or not.

I do not trust anything that anyone claims about themselves. In my experience, people that make vast claims about themselves are almost universally full of crap.

MM is a ceaseless and shameless self-promoter. Again, I have no experience with the NFL or anything NFL adjacent, but I have lived a lot of life outside the NFL. And I have never met anyone that is actually good at things that made the claims about themselves that MM does.

The intriguing thing is that we can all look up the stats, the games, the "data" if you will that the claims are built on. To my totally untrained eye, the data is ambigous at best supporting MM's claims about his capabilities as a coach.

I have no idea if it will or won't work out for MM with the Steelers. What I am asking people to do is to not just assume things to be true. Look at things and ask yourself if their is evidence to support the idea that MM was responsible for Montana, Favre, Brooks, Flynn, Gannon, Rodgers, Prescott, and the others he claims as his own.

 

Yeah. I have no idea other than MM touts Brooks as a success story of his QB school approach.

I couldn't even tell you what school Brooks went to much less how he played in college. Maybe, MM made him better even if that ultimate ceiling wasn't what people had hoped for?

 

I'm sure they have seen him running the offense at times in practice, of course that's different, but what I'm saying is they have seen a hell of a lot more than anyone here has.

 

All I can add, and believe me I don't dislike MM, I actually hope when he's done here we say he's the greatest HC the Steelers ever had, but I keep looking at a Qb that most everyone I know said was the greatest Qb ever, and I see one SB appearance, and it makes me think if he only got one SB appearance with the so called greatest Qb ever, what chance do we have.

 

I rather trade a 3rd for Mac Jones. Abs ride with it. If Howard shows him up, awesome. If not, we have a decent QB.

 

I'm not against that. I thought Mac Jones would be a decent Qb in the NFL, but I'm not sure how good. My only thing is teams tend to play whomever cost them more , until they can't. So If we traded a 3rd for Mac Jones, and pay him, would that influence the team to try, and stick with him longer than they had to, even if a only slightly better Qb was on the team???

 

Ya think

 

I stand corrected

I mistakenly lumped him in with the click post riff raff