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I’m Ready to Declare Drew Allar the Next Steelers Franchise Quarterback After One Preseason Game Against the Packers Reserves
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Penn State alumnus Drew Allar looked… pretty good on Thursday night? He made his preseason NFL debut against the Green Bay backups:
Maybe this is whiplash via Penn State juxtaposition, because the the Lions were 0-4 in Allar’s last four games against meaningful competition. That was 2025 against Northwestern, UCLA, and Oregon, and then the playoff semifinal against Notre Dame, in which Allar didn’t complete a single pass to a wide receiver and ended the game by throwing a lateral out of bounds.
Although, to be fair, he was pretty good in that UCLA game (19-26, 2 touchdowns), but there was something about the James Franklin stink that perhaps was influencing how people looked at the quarterback and his NFL prospects. Maybe the change of scenery wipes the slate clean in the way we evaluate Allar as a professional quarterback.
In that clip above, the first play is a pitch and catch with a big YAC gain. It looks like the corner falls down initially. The touchdown run is a nice read and pull, Jalen Hurts-style. That’s followed by a series of easy 1st and 2nd read tosses where he puts the ball exactly where it needs to be. Then he makes an off-script short completion to the right to gain about four yards before that roll left and TD pass on the pick play.
Thursday night, Allar was throwing the ball to guys like Kaden Wetjen, Max Hurleman, Levi Wentz, and Riley Nowakowski.
Who?
Well, Wetjen was Iowa’s return specialist the last couple of seasons. He wasn’t much of a receiver at all.
Hurleman is a local guy out of Wyomissing, a running back who played most of his career at Colgate before transferring to Notre Dame to play some corner and return punts.
Nowakowski is the Indiana tight end who transferred from Wisconsin.
And Wentz is a UDFA who came out of Kansas.
So this wasn’t exactly DK Metcalf and Germie Bernard and Michael Pittman Jr. out there.
It makes you think back to the Penn State receiver situation. Who was the best weapon Allar had in Happy Valley? It was Tyler Warren, then Nick Singleton out of the backfield. The best receiver Allar had was… Keandre Lambert-Smith, I guess. Trey Wallace? That’s pretty much it. The list starts and ends with two guys.
We’ve always been curious to see what Allar can do in a different situation. So far, so good? Not sure about you, but I’m ready to declare Allar the Yinzers’ QB of the future.
He’s it baby!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com