After five rounds and 184 picks, former Ohio State quarterback Will Howard was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the No. 185 overall pick in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL draft. Howard is the eighth quarterback taken in the draft, just four picks after his Buckeye predecessor Kyle McCord, and he teams up once again with Jack Sawyer, who was picked by Pittsburgh with the No. 123 overall pick in the fourth round.
Howard spent just one season with the Buckeyes, but it was about as successful as he could have hoped, winning the national championship to go down in Ohio State history.
When he came to Ohio State, one of his main goals was to boost his NFL draft stock by playing under head coach Ryan Day. Although he was projected as a third or fourth-round selection heading into the weekend, he ultimately was picked in the same round as he was projected to be selected before heading to the Buckeyes.
Regardless, Howard had a sensational season with Ohio State, broke a program record by completing 73.0 percent of his passes in the 2024 season, beating out former Buckeye QB C.J. Stroud’s mark of 71.9 percent that he set in 2021. Howard also finished the season with 4,010 passing yards, becoming just the third OSU quarterback to surpass the 4,000-yard mark in a season, joining Stroud and Dwayne Haskins. Howard threw for 35 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while running for 226 yards and seven scores with the Buckeyes.
He finished his college career with 9,796 passing yards and a 63.8 completion percentage with 83 touchdowns and 35 picks while running for 1,147 yards and 26 touchdowns on the ground.
Now Howard — a Downingtown, Pa., native — aims to find his footing in the NFL his home state Steelers. He may have the opportunity to learn under future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh, who has been rumored to sign with the team this offseason and visited with the franchise earlier this month.
The Steelers’ quarterback room currently includes Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson.
