The Pittsburgh Steelers have opened the season 3-1 with Aaron Rodgers under center, establishing early momentum. Following their Week 5 bye, they will host a struggling Cleveland Browns in Week 6. A favourable matchup on paper. But most importantly, Pittsburgh is expected to regain at least three players after the break, including a quarterback.

For starters, the rookie quarterback from Ohio, Will Howard, is expected to join the squad ahead of the Browns game. Howard has been sidelined since he fractured a bone in his hand during the training camp in early August. As a result, the rookie missed all the exhibition games and the first four games of the regular season. Fast forward to now, and Howard has started throwing.

That said, before their Week 3 game against the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac, addressed the Steelers’ plan for Howard. Dulac observed that Howard will return after the bye Week and will be prioritized for a 53-man roster spot over Skylar Thompson. “Will Howard comes off the IR in one more game after this,” he said earlier this month.

“He will come off IR before Skylar Thompson, and so probably what that means is they will try to get him some work, not necessarily though with the first or second team, but just to be able to get Will Howard out there with the scout team and at least get him doing something.”

It’s something that we’ve been expecting for the past couple of weeks now. Before the season kicked off, Thompson seemed to have an edge over Howard, considering the veteran was a standout in the preseason. However, he tweaked his hamstring ahead of the season opener and landed on IR ahead of the Week 2 game.

If the chatter carries any weight, Thompson reportedly won’t return until Week 7. Connecting the dots, Will Howard now has a chance to make his way through to the Steelers’ QB room. Besides the rookie quarterback, the Steelers are also expecting a couple of players to return to the team’s secondary.

The Steelers’ secondary gets an injury update

Alongside Howard, cornerbacks Cory Trice and Donte Kent are set to come off IR and start practicing ahead of Week 6 against the Browns. Trice, a former seventh-round pick, has struggled to find his footing since his rookie year. He missed all of 2023 with a torn ACL and then lost half of 2024 to a hamstring injury.

At this year’s NFL Scouting Combine, GM Omar Khan said the team believes in Trice’s potential but couldn’t risk starting him with those injury concerns, especially his lower-body injury issues. Now fully healthy, he’s expected to be back for the rest of the season. “We really like Cory,” the GM said. “The reality is that durability has been an issue, and until durability is not an issue, that’s a position that we have to keep our eye on.”

On top of that, Kent is expected to return alongside Trice in Week 6. The corner dealt with a right foot/ankle injury during training camp. He surely managed to get back into limited practice before roster cutdowns and made the final roster. But, only to be placed on IR shortly after. Initially, he was slated to miss at least the first four weeks. But now, with the NFL already four weeks in, Kent is set to rejoin the Steelers’ secondary.