PITTSBURGH, Pa. — From the press box overlooking the playing field, Steelers assistant general manager Andy Weidl watched the young quarterback lead the two-minute drill. A gutsy fourth-down completion moved the chains. A well-timed screen gained critical chunk yardage. Then, a crisp throw between the split safeties set the table at the 1-yard line.As the touchdown drive unfolded, Weidl found himself thinking back to the 2025 college football playoff — and all the moments during Ohio State’s National Championship run that made him a Will Howard believer.“(Howard) picked himself off the mat after the Ohio State-Michigan game when they lost at home,” Weidl said on Wednesday. “He played his best football at the most important time in the playoffs. He elevated his team. He elevated his play. The moment was never too big. He was poised, much like we saw the other night in the two-minute drill.”On Friday, Howard will once again be asked to meet the moment. He will start the Steelers’ second game of the preseason, taking on the New York Jets. Rookie Drew Allar is scheduled to play the remainder of the game, while veterans Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph sit out.What we learned from Drew Allar's stellar preseason performanceMike DeFaboThe buzz may surround Allar after his splashy, three-touchdown debut. But in a four-man room full of storylines and intrigue, Howard truly is the key variable — the player who could swing this entire conversation in one direction or the other, with possible ripple effects up and down the depth chart.“I just want to show the fanbase and myself and everybody that I’m capable of playing at this level,” Howard said. “Just continue to show that progression and growth.”The way that coach Mike McCarthy is approaching this game has appropriately framed the current competition. Rodgers is QB1; that’s the easy part. Allar made the 53-man roster the minute the Steelers used a third-round pick on him last spring. And while Rudolph’s spot as QB2 isn’t quite written in pen, nothing he does in a preseason game is going to alter anyone’s opinion of a player who is entering his ninth NFL season.