After months of waiting, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Aaron Rodgers finally made things official ahead of the 2026 season, as the four-time MVP and Super Bowl champion will be back in black and gold for what will likely be his final season of NFL football.

While that decision settles who will be the starter in 2026, it also opens up a whole other can of worms regarding the backup quarterback position. There are currently 4 signal callers, but only three will stay in all likelihood. So who’s going to make the cut? Let’s break it down.

Aaron Rodgers and Drew Allar are safe

Rodgers will obviously be the starter, so the only, and I mean only, way that Drew Allar is not on the Steelers roster come September would be if he decided to retire. Third-round picks at quarterback, for a franchise that remains loyal to a fault, don’t get cut before their rookie season even begins.

So the question becomes, who wins between Mason Rudolph and Will Howard?

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Mason Rudolph vs. Will Howard for backup in Pittsburgh

At the surface level, this may seem like a no-brainer. We have been there and done that with Mason Rudolph; you know what he brings to the table. Will Howard, on the other hand, is untapped potential.

He still has his innocence as an NFL quarterback. We have never seen him throw a meaningful pass, which is both intriguing and problematic. A backup quarterback is someone a team needs to be able to rely on.

A player who, when the starter goes down, the head coach can throw into the fire and have confidence in his ability to win a game. The Steelers have seen Mason Rudolph do that. They have yet to see Howard even suit up for a preseason game.

So when organized team activities start on Monday, that’s what Mike McCarthy and the staff will have to parse through. Do you roll the dice and go with the potential upside via Howard, or do you take the known commodity via Rudolph?

Time will tell.