LATROBE, Pa. — Last summer, shortly after Will Howard lugged his suitcase into the dorm at Saint Vincent College to begin his first Steelers training camp, Aaron Rodgers invited the sixth-round pick into his room. The rookie and the old gunslinger were talking through hand signals when Rodgers paused for a minute.“Look man, I’m here for you,” Howard remembers Rodgers saying. “I don’t want to overstep …”“I’m like, ‘Dude, you’re not overstepping,’” Howard told him. “‘You’re one of the greatest to play. I’m just trying to soak in as much as I can.’”The relationship between a veteran quarterback and his young backups can sometimes be challenging, even contentious. No one knows this better than Rodgers. When the Green Bay Packers drafted him in 2005, the thrill of sharing a QB room with one of his idols quickly turned into something else.“My contract doesn’t say I have to get Aaron Rodgers ready to play,” Brett Favre famously said.Even before Rodgers put on a helmet for Pittsburgh, he displayed a willingness to pass his knowledge to the next generation. On Day 1 of mandatory minicamp in 2025, former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin wanted Rodgers to be a spectator as he got up to speed on a new offense. Instead, Rodgers was on a knee, giving detailed feedback to Howard about his footwork.DK Metcalf opens up about the Steelers' team bonding tripMike DeFaboThis offseason, the Steelers doubled down on development by drafting Drew Allar in the third round, making Rodgers’ presence even more crucial. When Howard and Allar make their preseason debuts Thursday night against the Packers, they’ll have Rodgers on the headset — and in their corners. He has proven to be the mentor he never had.“To coin a phrase after a guy that I’ve followed, it’s not in my job description,” Rodgers said. “But I think it’s a great opportunity, for sure, to be able to mentor those guys.”Last season, Rodgers stood in front of the room every Thursday for a player-led meeting. Howard, whose season was derailed by a broken pinky during training camp, said he became the QB’s “assistant,” dialing up clips on the computer.