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3 hours ago
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It's still very early in the process, but it appears Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Will Howard is off to a positive start.
Howard made his Steelers practice debut this past weekend during the team's rookie minicamp, and the biggest things head coach Mike Tomlin wanted to see from his young quarterback was communication and his command of the offense.
“Huddle command and communication, the ability to regurgitate new information,” he said, per Joe Rutter of TribLive.com. “By new information, I mean information that is new to them.
"I don’t want to underscore how difficult it is to receive verbiage from a play caller and have to regurgitate it to 10 others who are waiting for it. They are elementary things, but important things nonetheless. Giving and receiving information is a central component of leadership at that position,” Tomlin added.
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Well, it seems that Howard passed those tests, at least in the opinion of one Steelers beat writer.
Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that he was impressed with Howard's command of the huddle and communication with teammates while watching the rookie over the weekend.
"We only got to watch the morning sessions, and they were walkthroughs. But I will say this: I was impressed with Howard's command of the huddle and how he interacted with teammates," he said. "You can tell he's a quality leader."
While there were plenty of questions about different parts of his game coming out of college, it was already very clear from his days at Ohio State that Howard had great leadership qualities. That will be a huge asset to him in the NFL.
Now, it's about developing the rest of his game, something he'll have plenty of time to do, assuming Aaron Rodgers signs with the Steelers. If not, Howard could get a crack at a starting role right away, although Mason Rudolph would be the favorite.
With rookie minicamp in the books, the next chance we'll get to see Howard in action will come during organized team activities (OTAS), which begin on Tuesday, May 27.
You can check out Pittsburgh's full schedule for OTAs right here.
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