Pittsburgh Steelers

Last year as a rookie, Steelers quarterback Will Howard suffered a fractured hand in early August that kept him out of the team’s preseason games.

That’s part of why it’s understandable that Howard — a sixth-round pick in the 2025 draft — is so excited to get his first pro exhibition opportunity this week when the Steelers host the Packers on Thursday night.

“I’m so fired up. I can’t wait for the game,” Howard said, via video from Mark Kaboly. “Obviously, I’m trying to take it day by day, and it’s still camp. But, sometimes you can’t help but look forward a little bit and start getting excited just to be out there and [get] live game reps — because I haven’t played in over a year in live game reps. I think the last time was the national championship. So, I’ve been champing at the bit for a while to get out there with the guys in a real game-like setting — uniform on, helmet on.

“I just can’t wait. I think tomorrow we’re going to start looking at Green Bay a little bit, do some planning a little bit. I’m just really, really excited.”

Howard added, via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, that he’s expecting to play “a good amount” on Thursday night. But to this point, head coach Mike McCarthy hasn’t set out definitive plans.

No matter how long he’s out there, Howard is going to find Thursday night’s experience meaningful.

“I know everyone says preseason isn’t real football,” Howard said, “but to me, it is.”

Matt LaFleur succeeded Mike McCarthy as Packers head coach in 2019.

The two have coached against one another before and on Thursday will do it again as McCarthy makes his preseason debut as head coach of the Steelers.

McCarthy, of course, won Super Bowl XLV with Green Bay to cap the 2010 season.

LaFleur said he’s gotten to know McCarthy through connecting at league meetings and the times McCarthy has come back to visit Green Bay.

“I’ll say this — I’ve got so much respect for him,” LaFleur said in his Monday press conference. “First of all, how he’s always treated me. Secondly, just by what he’s accomplished here. It’s pretty cool that, when he got the Pittsburgh job, I’m like, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers — I mean, that’s pretty special.

“So, Mike’s a guy I’ve got a ton of respect for.”

The Packers and Steelers will kick off in Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday night.

The Steelers changed up their wide receiver group on Monday.

They announced the signings of Cornell Powell and Isaiah Winstead to the 90-man roster. Wideout Colton Dowell was waived along with offensive tackle Lorenzo Thompson.

Powell was a Chiefs fifth-round pick in 2021 and he played in three games for the team. He led the UFL in receiving touchdowns while playing for the DC Defenders this spring.

Winstead was also in the UFL this year and had 29 receptions for 474 yards and three touchdowns as a member of the Louisville Kings. He was in training camp with the Jets in 2024 when Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was with the AFC East team.

When Steelers rookie offensive tackle Max Iheanachor suffered an injury at practice last week, head coach Mike McCarthy indicated he would be back by Monday. That has proven not to be the case.

Today McCarthy told reporters that Iheanachor remains out of practice, and there’s no timeline for him to return.

That could indicate that the injury Iheanachor suffered, which has been termed a neck/shoulder injury, is more serious than originally thought. But it could also just be that the Steelers want to be cautious with their first-round draft pick.

The Steelers open the preseason on Thursday against the Packers, and while there’s no official word on whether Iheanachor will play, it seems unlikely that he’ll be on the field Thursday if he can’t go today.

Aaron Rodgers loves football. Before last season, he didn’t love it as much as he once did. His experience with Mike Tomlin helped rekindle it.

In a Saturday interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, Pat Kirwan asked how he can walk away from a game he loves.

“I do love it, yeah,” Rodgers said. “I’m also 42. I’ve played 22 years. I played three in college. I’ve never had a fall to myself. I want to start a family with my wife, you know? I think you just have to know when it’s time.

“And, you know, there’s been times in the last three offseasons where I felt like maybe it is time. But doors open, and I just tried to listen to the signs. I might have been listening to the wrong signs by going to New York, but it was a good learning experience, you know, and I learned a lot during that process, and I am thankful for that time there.

“And I’m thankful for last year with Coach Tomlin, because he helped me get that love back, that deep love back for the game. That, you know, tearing my Achilles and going through a year of rehab, and just never feeling like myself, it just kind of beats you up a little bit, and I didn’t want that to be my ending in the game that I love so much, and Mike and being around the guys, got me that love back, and I was content in walking away. And then they hired Mike McCarthy, and I was like, ‘Okay, maybe we need a full circle here, me and Mike need a full circle here.”

Whether Rodgers believes it was a good idea will depend largely on how his last season goes. Which will depend on whether McCarthy can match or beat last year’s 10-7 season that resulted in an AFC North crown and another one-and-done postseason run.

For the first time in 20 years, an NFL season is approaching without Mike Tomlin serving as one of the 32 head coaches. Undoubtedly, he’ll be at the top of multiple wish lists when the 2026 hiring cycle commences in less than five months.

Will Tomlin’s foray into TV be a one-year thing? Cris Collinsworth posed that question to Tomlin in a fourth-quarter visit to the booth during Thursday night’s Hall of Fame game.

“I haven’t thought a whole lot about it yet, because I don’t feel like I’m missing anything yet,” Tomlin said. “You know, when those regular-season balls start snapping, that’s when I’ll start, you know, getting a little twitch a little bit.”

He’s been part of the NFL’s story, dating back to 2001, his first year as an assistant coach with the Buccaneers. For now, he says, “It’s good to be a part of the storytelling.”

Only he will know whether that’s enough. For Hall of Famer John Madden, who retired from coaching at 42, he never went back. Sean Payton, who would cement his own status in Canton if he becomes the first coach to win a Super Bowl with two different franchises, stayed away for only one year.

One key question surely will be whether the right situation emerges for Tomlin. Most jobs that become vacant have become vacant for a reason. Dysfunctional teams have a hard time flipping the switch to non-dysfunctional.

Still, look at the land rush that emerged for former Ravens coach John Harbaugh, once it was clear that he was ready to keep coaching. Tomlin would have experienced a similar dynamic, if he had been interested in continuing immediately.

The moment he decides to look around, teams will come looking for him. And not just teams that have vacancies. For some owners, the question of whether they could swap out the current head coach for Tomlin could be a key factor in the decision as to whether they’ll keep the coach they already have.

If Tomlin thrives, as he will, on Football Night in America, some of those owners will become even more determined to make a run at getting the man who never had a losing season in 19 years on the job.

So the question posed by Collinsworth to Tomlin won’t be going away, especially since Tomlin has set forth a key benchmark for his overall assessment as to whether he’ll return: When the regular-season balls start snapping.

They start snapping one month from today, when the Seahawks hang a banner before facing the Patriots in a Super Bowl LX rematch.

With Tomlin in the stadium to soak it all in.

The Commanders are adding a player to their offensive line.

According to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, Washington is expected to sign Max Scharping.

Scharping, 29, spent most of the last two seasons with the Steelers. But before that, he was on the Commanders’ practice squad for about a month.

A second-round pick in 2019, Scharping has appeared in 81 games with 33 starts for Houston, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh.

He has also spent time with the Eagles.

The Steelers received some positive news on the injury front for one of their rookies.

Head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters on Friday that offensive tackle Max Iheanachor will be out of practice for the next few days with an undisclosed injury. But, he is set to return early next week.

“He won’t go today,” McCarthy said, via Brian Batko of the team’s website. “I think we might not see him until Monday, but he’s OK.”

McCarthy did not go into specifics about the nature of Iheanachor’s injury after the 2026 first-round pick had to exit practice earlier this week.

The Steelers first preseason game is set for next Thursday night against the Packers.

The week began with Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers causing a ruckus on ESPN, where he sharply criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci — and ESPN. The appearance prompted sharp criticism of Rodgers.

Rodgers has since insisted that he doesn’t care.

“I don’t give a [crap] about anything that people think about me unless they’re in my corner and I would ask them for advice,” Rodgers told Jarrett Bell of USA Today.

“I don’t care about the criticism from people like that,” Rodgers said. “Most people have made up their mind about me, so it doesn’t matter what I say. It’s not going to change their mind because most people aren’t listening to the content of your words. They’re wanting to attack your character because they think you’re MAGA or they think you’re whatever tag they put on you — conspiracy theorist, anti-science. They’ve already made up their mind about me before this.”

But the stuff Rodgers said on Monday reinforces, and confirms, those preconceived notions. If, after all, someone is regarded as MAGA or a conspiracy theorist or anti-science and that person then says things consistent with one or more of those labels, why would anyone feel any differently than they already do?

Besides, other things Rodgers told Bell contradict his “I don’t give a shit” vibe. Rodgers explained that he posted photos of his recent reconciliation with his estranged family not to celebrate the occasion but to counter lingering criticism of his perceived role in cutting them off.

“I feel like it was part of the full-circle nature of this last season for me,” Rodgers told Bell. “There’s been a narrative out there. There’s not been a lot of information that’s truthful about it. And I think that the personal life should stay personal and private. . . .

“But I feel like it was part of the full-circle to just one-time post something, and never again. So that that narrative can finally be put to rest.”

If Rodgers doesn’t care what people think of him “unless they’re in my corner and I would ask them for advice,” why violate his “personal and private” life to “shut down” a narrative that doesn’t trouble him? If he truly doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks, why would he give a shit about shutting down their narratives?

Rodgers is a complicated figure, to be sure. And there are plenty of inconsistencies in the things he says and does.

Since he doesn’t care if anyone outside his inner circle thinks that, he won’t care that someone is pointing it out.

Steelers first-round rookie Max Iheanachor left practice early Thursday with an apparent injury.

Alan Saunders of PghSteelersNow reports that Iheanachor walked to the sideline to have head athletic trainer Gabe Amponsah work on his neck and right shoulder area. Iheanachor then spoke with team physician Dr. Aaron Mares before walking toward the training room.

Iheanachor, the 21st overall pick, has worked with the second team at right tackle. Broderick Jones moved to Iheanachor’s spot for the rest of practice, with Jack Driscoll taking second-team reps at left tackle in Jones’ stead.

Iheanachor did not allow a sack in his senior season at Arizona State. He appeared in 32 career games, starting 31 for the Sun Devils.

He was an All-Big 12 Second Team selection in 2025.