Drew Allar's Biggest Question With Steelers Continues to Arise

One of the biggest questions that former Penn State quarterback Drew Allar will have to answer over the next few years is whether he can develop at the level that teams who were interested in him in the 2026 NFL Draft clearly thought he could. Allar, who ended up with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third round, has a lot of tools to be excited about. 

There's absolutely no debate that, as a tools guy, he has everything in the book to be successful at the highest level. The only question remaining now is whether he's actually good enough to put all of those tools together. Having tools is one thing, but putting them together in the NFL is a lot different. For the Steelers writer from The Athletic, that's one of the biggest questions that not only Allar faces, but all of Pittsburgh does this year.

“I’m curious to see how Allar develops. It’s interesting to me that the biggest knock on him is that he has unrefined footwork; that is one of the most important parts of McCarthy’s West Coast system, as the steps of the quarterback’s drop are married to the depths of the receivers’ routes. By giving Allar guardrails and a more structured approach in the pocket, eventually the size and arm talent could shine. Still, he needs work. His accuracy is often spotty, and he’ll be challenged to process the game at a higher level once the preseason games begin,” Mike DeFabo of The Athletic wrote.

“It seems Allar is destined to spend this season as QB3. Barring disaster, he will never see the field this year. That’s probably the best possible thing for his long-term development. While he’ll be under the microscope in the preseason, we’re not really going to know what the Steelers have in Allar until a year from now, when McCarthy has more time to work with the promising, but unrefined, quarterback.”

Allar will certainly get a chance to play in the preseason if things go as planned. While that won't give everyone a firm understanding of the type of player he is, it will help us see whether he can at least compete at a lower level in this league. I suspect Allar will be fine, but it might take some time.