If you thought Will Howard's hand injury seemed bizarre, you're not alone. The Pittsburgh Steelers' rookie quarterback and 2025 sixth-round pick fractured a bone in his right hand on a simple center exchange late in Steelers training camp. We didn't think much of it at first, but the strange injury even has doctors baffled.
Howard recently went on the Down 2 Business podcast, where he finally told the full story of how he broke his hand.
"It was an under-center snap was how it happened," Howard said. "The doctors were like, 'We've never seen anything like this happen.' Snapped it into my hand and jammed my pinky out and it broke this bone right here."
A quarterback breaking their hand on a simple exchange under center isn't an injury you hear every day, and it's one that had Howard's doctors in disbelief.
"It was crazy," Howard continued. "Everyone was like, 'I thought you just jammed your finger.' I finished that drill, had a couple plays, then I went to the next drill. I couldn't even grab the football. I was like, 'Something is messed up, I have to get this checked out.' And I went up, I was like, 'I'll be right back down. I'm just going to get X-rayed, make sure I'm cool.' Went up there, sure enough it was broken."
The Pittsburgh Steelers have already had bad injury luck with rookie draft picks
Because of the unfortunate and fluky hand injury, the Pittsburgh Steelers never got to see Will Howard take the field for a preseason game. The Ohio State championship quarterback was later placed on IR with a designation to return to begin the season.
Unfortunately, this isn't the only bad injury luck the Steelers have had with their rookie draft class.
In the preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers, first-round defensive lineman Derrick Harmon went down with what was initially feared to be a serious knee injury. It turns out that it was an MCL sprain for Harmon, and he'll be out at least the first few weeks.
READ MORE: Steelers coach crushes Cam Heyward doubts with just one word
Over the past few years, the Steelers lost former rookie draft picks Calvin Austin III and Cory Trice Jr. to season-ending injuries before their rookie campaigns even kicked off, while 2024 third-round pick Roman Wilson suited up for just five snaps last season after dealing with a high ankle sprain and a hamstring issue.
The biggest lost happened last year when rookie offensive tackle and first round pick Troy Fautanu suffered a season-ending knee injury after just one game. Howard was simply the next in line of a long list of bad rookie injury luck for the Steelers.
With the severity of Will Howard's hand injury, the rookie was already put behind the developmental curve, and being shut down for the season is still an option. The Pittsburgh Steelers weren't planning to use their rookie QB this year anyway, but we would like him to get every practice rep possible to aid his development.
Who would have thought a center snap exchange would have caused such a big issue?