Paul Zeise: Mike McCarthy should trust his instincts and make Will Howard the starting QB

PITTSBURGH — When Mike McCarthy was hired as Pittsburgh Steelers coach earlier this year, he was adamant that he has a lot of faith in Will Howard.

He said he was always high on Howard and always thought he has the basic pieces to become a really good starting quarterback in the NFL.

Then McCarthy doubled down Tuesday at the NFL’s winter meetings in Arizona. He said the focus on Howard should be his talent, not that he was drafted in the sixth round.

“People get caught up in what round he went in,” McCarthy said. “But if I was drafting players that year, he wouldn’t have been around in the fifth or sixth round. I valued him higher than that, based off [his career at] Kansas State. And, man, I thought he jumped out of the TV set during the college playoffs [at Ohio State].

“What is there not to like about the guy? I think he’s definitely a real prospect as a starting quarterback. I believed that when he came out.”

OK, I get it. McCarthy may or may not be just talking up one of his players, but his statement suggests that he knew something about Howard when he was at Kansas State (and relatively anonymous).

It also suggests that he knew about Howard when the rest of the football world had all kinds of questions about him early on at Ohio State. It also suggests that where a guy is drafted is irrelevant.

That is all well and good, but here is my thing: If McCarthy believes in Howard that much, why has he not been named the starting quarterback yet? Why is McCarthy still flirting with bringing back Aaron Rodgers? Why a few minutes later was McCarthy talking about how he was hopeful there would be a quarterback on the board to draft?

If Howard is an outlier in terms of his draft position not dictating his long-term future, then just make him the starter. Let him grow into the position this year and by next year he will be ready to lead the Steelers back to the promised land.

I don’t see why this is controversial or even a hot take. McCarthy is the quarterback guru, the quarterback whisperer, and he has a young quarterback who has a lot of upside and the ability to be a starter in the NFL.

And while I know that sometimes where a guy is drafted is overrated, the draft is a pretty good indicator when it comes to the quarterback position. I mean, yes there are a few exceptions like Tom Brady (sixth) and Brock Purdy (seventh), but for the most part it is tough for me to come up with quarterbacks drafted beyond about the fourth round who have had a lot of success.

A quick look at the starting quarterbacks from last year shows by what round a team probably needs to get its quarterback.

There were 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL last year (obviously because of injuries more players actually started but the starters are the starters).

In the AFC East: Drake Maye, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Fields and Josh Allen. All of them were first-rounders, and so were three of the four AFC North quarterbacks (Rodgers, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow).

The lone exception is Shedeur Sanders of the Browns, and I am not sure that anyone outside of Deion and the media friends of Deion believes he is a legitimate option as a starting quarterback in the NFL.

The AFC South had Trevor Lawrence, Cam Ward, Daniel Jones and C.J. Stroud — all first-rounders. The AFC West starters were three first-rounders — Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert and Bo Nix — and Geno Smith, a second-round pick.

So just to review the AFC: 16 starters, 14 of them first-round picks, one second-round pick, and then there are the Browns, an organization that prides itself on making a disaster out of the quarterback spot.

I could do the NFC player by player, but I will make it a lot easier and break it down this way.

The East had two first-round picks, a second and a fourth. The North had four first-rounders. The South had three first-round picks and a second-round pick. The West had three first-rounders and Purdy.

So if my math is correct: Of the NFC’s 16 starting quarterbacks, there were 12 first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fourth-rounder and Purdy.

Overall, of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL, 29 of them were picked in the first and second rounds and only one — Purdy — was picked after the fourth. That is more than just a coincidence. It suggests that probably the teams scout quarterbacks better than any position out there.

I don’t doubt McCarthy, and maybe he has the special eye for talent that he seems to be proclaiming he has, but excuse me if I am a bit skeptical that he had some sort of insight on Howard that nobody else did (otherwise he would not have lasted until the sixth round in a league starving for quarterbacks).

Maybe he is right, maybe his eye is sharper than others, but the only way he can really prove this is just to go all in and tie his Steelers tenure to Howard. At the worst, it is a disaster and the Steelers stop trying to win with the “veteran scrap-heap quarterback of the year” — and actually go get their quarterback of the future.

If it works, though, McCarthy is shown to be the quarterback guru that his reputation seems to suggest he is, Howard becomes the Steelers quarterback of the future and we can stop this nonsensical annual offseason discussion about quarterbacks.

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