When you think about Will Howard, most people like to laud his Ohio State tenure in his final collegiate year.
And for good reason. A dominant national championship run will turn the heads of anybody who's paying attention. It tends to overshine his Kansas State days, which were a bit underwhelming for a pro-level prospect.
But some think his Wildcats tape is enough to back his resume with the championship run on the front page. CBS Sports HQ debated on whether the Pittsburgh Steelers should move forward with Howard or go with Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. Two-time Steelers champion Bryant McFadden lauded Howard for his entire collegiate body of work.
"He was balling at Kansas State," McFadden said. "And look at what Will Howard had [at Ohio State]. It wasn't like you had to throw the football 50 times when he was there. I’m taking Will Howard. In any other draft, is Ty Simpson a first-round pick? He’s benefited from this being a watered-down draft."
And honestly, history might be against Ty Simpson with only 15 college games.
Dating back to 2017, the six quarterbacks with fewer than 20 college starts aren't the most promising bunch: Mitchell Trubisky (2017), Kyler Murray (2019), Dwayne Haskins Jr. (2019), Mac Jones (2021), Trey Lance (2021), and Anthony Richardson Sr. (2023). A few of them have had high peaks or short-term prosperity, but nothing that matched their Draft expectations. This all leans in Howard's favor with his Kansas State experience.
"Howard did win a Big 12 championship at Kansas State, where he played pretty well," analyst Danny Kannell added to the segment. "He played multiple seasons. I want to see more of a body of work that's more consistent over time. Well, Howard is probably a better runner and a bigger body."
Though if you ask Howard, he may want to put his Wildcats tenure behind him. His interview with The Athletic revealed his initial emotions upon leaving the team with its switch to Avery Johnson as the starter.
"I was a naive kid, I didn’t know," Howard said in an interview. "The nature of myself, I didn’t want anything or need money. I said I was good. There was a lot of politics in the last year. There were games I was splitting time with [Johnson] for no reason that I knew other than there was money going to him that wasn’t going to me."
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