Ben Roethlisberger's Drew Allar Comments Were Just a Tad Ridiculous

Ben Roethlisberger made his feelings rather clear on former Penn State star Drew Allar after his former team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, decided to take a chance on the Ohio native in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft. I thought this was a very smart move from the Steelers' perspective, but I also tried to see where Roethlisberger is coming from.

Roethlisberger's words definitely weren't anything that Allar or anybody else will probably want to hear, but he proposed that there's going to be a lot of problems in his game, and certainly brought up some red flags that we saw at times during his career at Penn State.

“When I’m watching him do three-step drops, that makes me incredibly nervous,” Roethlisberger said on his podcast, per Penn Live. “You might say, ‘Why? You’re refining things.’ There’s a difference in refining things and teaching. When we did football camps, the first thing you’re teaching the youngest kids is how to do a three-step drop. Maybe they’re working on the three-step drop to be more efficient. But it looked to me like it was baby steps, teaching. I could be completely wrong. All I’m saying is that it makes me a little nervous to watch it and be like, ‘They’re working on a three-step drop?’”

Others continue to believe that's the same problem, including another former NFL quarterback. Recently speaking, the former New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons, and Denver Broncos quarterback had a lot to say about Allar, adding that he thought it was actually a reach for the Steelers to even take him in the third round.

"I hated it because I thought it was a reach," Danny Kanell said about Pittsburgh drafting Allar, per Troy Montgomery of Steelers Depot. "Drew Allar is somebody who has such tantalizing skills...But you never saw him develop and take that next step as a player."

"To me, it wasn't anything mechanical," Kanell added about Allar. "It wasn't anything with the system. It was more to do about Drew Allar. He was so conservative and became a bit of a 'Checkdown Charlie'...This is somebody who has to take a massive, massive step forward on the field in order to be the franchise quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers."

There's a lot of talent in the third round of a draft, especially some hidden gems at that point. 

This year's draft class, however, made sense for the Steelers to reach on a quarterback even if they feel they did reach on Allar. Remember now, he was expected to be one of the first picks in the 2026 NFL Draft before getting injured last year, so I don't really think the Steelers reached here.