Penn State quarterback Drew Allar will have a tough time becoming a starter in the NFL if the Pittsburgh Steelers decide to bring back Aaron Rodgers next season.
Fortunately for Allar, I actually view this as somewhat of a good thing. I believe that he has an opportunity to be a really good quarterback in the NFL one day, but he needs to develop at a very high level with some elite minds around him.
As much as people like to hate on him at times because of some off-the-field things, Rodgers is certainly one of the brightest minds the National Football League has ever seen.
There's no debate that he's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and learning from somebody like him should do a lot of good for Allar in his career. However, it still sounds like he's going to be impacted by some of the decisions to bring Rodgers back, though it was recently questioned by a Steelers insider.
“Yet it appears the Steelers will go with two quarterbacks who are a combined 73 years old — Aaron Rodgers with 30-year-old journeyman Mason Rudolph as his backup,” Joe Starkey wrote.
“To which I ask: How is anybody — even the Guru of Greenfield — supposed to properly evaluate the two young quarterbacks before the 2027 draft hits? It seems to me that unless the Rodgers thing falls apart or the Steelers jettison Rudolph, that would be impossible. I’m guessing McCarthy will want a veteran behind Rodgers in case of injury. Does he really want to throw Allar or Howard into a game in, say, Baltimore in Week 4 if Rodgers goes down?”
There have been questions about the Steelers bringing in another quarterback during the 2027 NFL Draft, but as Starkey touched on, it wouldn't really make a whole lot of sense if the team doesn't plan to give guys like Will Howard, Mason Rudolph, and Allar a chance to show what they have.
If the idea was to draft Howard and Allar over the past two years, they eventually have to give them a chance. There's no reason to keep playing Rodgers and Rudolph just to select a quarterback if they have no idea what those two guys will look like at the highest level.