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Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. Welcome to The Terrible Take at daily segment telling Steelers Nation what's on our mind.

I'm Ross McCorkel.

Regardless of whether the Steelers end up pursuing a first-round quarterback in the 27 NFL draft,

most likely that first-round quarterback would not be the week-one starter,

as was the case with Kenny Pickett in 2022.

That leaves a brief window for one of either Drew Aller or Will Howard to set themselves apart as that week one starter.

Only one can earn that distinction.

That places a ton of importance on the next four or five months leading up to the start of the

season with OTAs, training camp, and most importantly, the preseason. Will Howard missed that

last year, but he still had plenty of NFL practices and a year spent under Aaron Rogers,

who mentored him closely. All other things equal, Drew Aller technically would have the inside track to winning that

job just because he was a top 100 draft pick versus Will Howard being a sixth round pick,

and perhaps most importantly, Mike McCarthy, hand-selected Drew Aller, wanted him in the

2026 draft.

And while he said he likes Will Howard and has

reiterated that several times at this point, he wasn't the one who selected Howard in the draft.

Will Howard would have to outperform Aller and perhaps significantly so to earn the job in

27 or the top backup spot in 2026 if Aaron Rogers ends up getting

injured. Jerry Dulac reported that the Steelers would only draft a quarterback in the third round

if they viewed him as having a higher ceiling than Will Howard. So if the battle is too close to

...