The idea of Penn State’s Drew Allar landing with the New York Jets has been floating around for a few weeks now, but some don’t believe it makes as much sense as it did.
For a while, the logic made sense, as the Jets have been expected to target a quarterback in the 2026 draft rather than force a first-round pick, which opened the door for prospects like Allar to be linked to New York early on Day 2.
If Allar is anywhere near as good as he’s shown he can be at times for an entire year, he could be one of the better QBs in the NFL. I get the questions, but he’s definitely worth a Day 2 pick at this point.
However, according to JetsXFactor’s Michael Nania, the odds of Allar ending up in New York have dropped, and it has everything to do with both his profile and how the Jets may now be approaching the position.
“It has long been speculated that the Jets will target a post-first-round developmental quarterback in the 2026 draft, while punting their pursuit of a first-round prospect to 2027. That has led to quite a few “project” prospects, namely Penn State’s Drew Allar, being heavily mocked to New York in the second round, where the Jets have the 33rd and 45th overall picks. Jets fans are all too familiar with taking a quarterback like Allar in the second round. He’s got all the tools that scouts love, standing at 6-foot-5 and 228 pounds with acclaimed arm strength, but his college production left a lot to be desired.
“Allar averaged under 7.0 yards per pass attempt in three of his four college seasons, including a ghastly 6.9 across six starts for the Nittany Lions in 2025. He is also coming off a season-ending ankle injury that denied him the opportunity to make up for his bad tape early in the year. It sure sounds a lot like another second-round Penn State quarterback prospect, no? While the Jets still may end up drafting Allar or another post-first-round quarterback prospect, the odds are rapidly climbing that New York may go ahead and take an earlier, higher-percentage swing on Alabama’s Ty Simpson instead of settling for a total lottery ticket like Allar. Why? Well, simply put, the Jets have come out of free agency with precisely zero long-term upside in their quarterback room,” he wrote.
As I said, the questions are fair on Allar, and Nania did a good job of pointing them out. I’d push back on some of the issues and say that James Franklin didn’t do a good job, but the tape on Allar is the tape on Allar.