Drew Allar is one of the most intriguing players in the 2026 NFL Draft. A three-year starter at Penn State, Allar suffered a season-ending ankle injury halfway through the season. He entered 2025 as a Heisman candidate and one of the top quarterbacks for this upcoming draft after bypassing the opportunity after his junior year.<\/p>\n
Allar threw in front of NFL teams for the first time on Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis at the combine, looking to improve his stock this April. He confirmed in an interview with Aditi Kinkhabwala of CBS Sports that he had a formal interview with the Steelers earlier this week. The news was first reported by Nick Farabaugh of Penn Live.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old prospect met with Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy. Allar said McCarthy was the toughest of any coach he talked with at the combine.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach McCarthy with the Steelers,\u201d Allar said when asked about his toughest meeting. \u201cBut we weren\u2019t necessarily up at the board [drawing plays]. I was explaining a lot of our protections and a couple of concepts he was asking me about. It was really fun. Those are the conversations I love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allar only played six games as a senior before his ankle injury. He completed 64.8% of his passes for 1,110 yards, eight touchdowns, and three interceptions, guiding PSU to a 3-3 record.<\/p>\n
In 45 career games over four seasons, the first backing up Bengals quarterback Sean Clifford, Allar threw for 7,402 yards, 61 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.<\/p>\n
I love talking ball. I\u2019m learning as much football as I can,\u201d Allar said. \u201cI\u2019ve taken a lot of pride in trying to [have] the highest football IQ I possibly can. I try to improve on it every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allar led Penn State to the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2024, but threw a game-sealing interception in the final minute that set up Notre Dame for a game-winning field goal in Miami.<\/p>\n
One key knock on Allar was his performances in big games, finishing his college career 0-7 against Oregon (0-2), Ohio State (0-2), and Notre Dame (0-1).<\/p>\n
Did Allar pass McCarthy\u2019s test to see if he\u2019s worthy to be the Steelers\u2019 next franchise quarterback?<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I passed,\u201d Allar joked. \u201cI felt good [with] what I was saying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allar could have left school and been one of the top quarterbacks available in a class with Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart, and Shedeur Sanders, but returned to Penn State determined to improve his game for one final year.<\/p>\n
He guided the Nittany Lions to their first two wins in the College Football Playoff, a 38-10 victory over SMU inside Beaver Stadium and a 31-14 win against Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.<\/p>\n
The Medina, Ohio, native grew up a Browns fan. McCarthy joked back and forth with Allar about their backgrounds as PA-Ohio ties and connections.<\/p>\n
Could history repeat itself and the Steelers select an Ohio quarterback to be their next franchise QB, like Ben Roethlisberger, and be passed up by the Browns?<\/p>\n
The 2026 NFL Draft begins in Pittsburgh on April 23, with the second and third rounds on April 24, and the fourth-through-seventh rounds on April 25.<\/p>\n
Let us know what you think in the comments. Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drew Allar is one of the most intriguing players in the 2026 NFL Draft. A three-year starter at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,2376,2374],"class_list":{"0":"post-786146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-draft","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116158299134829444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}