Steelers Predicted to Replace Penn State's Drew Allar With Arch Manning

Young quarterbacks in the NFL not only need to hope they get a chance, but also that they get a long enough chance to prove they can be the guy their organizations are looking for. 

That's something former Penn State quarterback Drew Allar will have to hope for, as he has the tools to be a very good player but has yet to prove he can stick at the highest level. 

Of course, he hasn't even played one preseason game in his career and has hardly thrown this offseason, as he's done very little at the NFL level, but there are still a lot of questions about how he's going to look.

With the Steelers' decision to bring back Aaron Rodgers, there’s at least some sort of feeling in the organization that they can win games and that they don't want to go with a younger quarterback.

No matter how the Steelers play this year, there are definitely going to be questions about what the long-term future looks like at the position. 

Pittsburgh is worried about winning games right now, but there's an expectation that Rodgers will retire next year, barring something drastic. In fact, he's already made it known multiple times now that he plans to shut it down after this year.

Perhaps Allar will be the next in line, but Pro Football Network doesn't expect that to be the case, recently predicting him to be replaced by Arch Manning with the second overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft by making a trade with the Miami Dolphins for the No. 2 pick.

“Since the Kenny Pickett experiment failed, the Pittsburgh Steelers have rotated veteran reclamation projects at quarterback like Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, and Aaron Rodgers. None of them have been able to get them over the hump of winning a playoff game, which is something the Steelers haven’t done since 2016.

“The Steelers have been stuck in NFL purgatory for a decade now with no real direction for the future. Sooner or later, they’ll have to make a splash for a young quarterback. Being projected to miss the playoffs in 2026, Pittsburgh starts its rebuild by trading key defenders for draft capital, while trading a haul headlined by multiple first-round picks to the Dolphins to acquire their quarterback of the future,” Jacob Infante of PFN wrote.

This would be a worst-case scenario outcome for Allar, though it's probably possible. The harsh reality here is that the Steelers need their guy, and if they don't think Allar, Will Howard, or anyone other than Manning can be that guy, they're going to take the Texas quarterback.