Steelers Announce Bummer Injury Update for QB Will Howard

Some more injury news regarding quarterback Will Howard ahead of the season—the Steelers will be placing the rookie QB on injured reserve as he continues to recover from a fractured pinkie, the team announced Thursday.

Howard, a sixth-round pick out of Ohio State, injured his hand during training camp in early August. With the move to IR, he will be sidelined for at least the first four weeks of the season.

The former national champion is listed as the QB3 on the Steelers' unofficial depth chart, behind both Aaron Rodgers and perennial backup Mason Rudolph, so it's unlikely he'd get much playing time at the start of the season anyway, if at all. But the injury did force him to miss some valuable preseason reps, when he was expected to handle a majority of the workload.

At the time of the fracture, Howard believed he had just jammed his finger on a quarterback-center exchange, only to later realize he couldn't hold the ball.

“I can normally tolerate pain pretty well," he said. "I literally could not grip the football. So I knew something was messed up.”

The rookie also later opened up about the mental toll the setback was having, noting that "I'm trying as hard as I can to not be bugged by this a ton, but it does suck. The competitor in me would tear my left arm off if I could go back in there."