{"id":961307,"date":"2026-08-01T12:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/961307\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:18:14","slug":"mark-kaboly-assesses-drew-allar-will-howard-through-start-of-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/961307\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Kaboly Assesses Drew Allar, Will Howard Through Start Of Training Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re just three days into training camp, but all eyes\u2014including Mike McCarthy\u2019s<\/a>\u2014are on Drew Allar and Will Howard. The Steelers\u2019 young quarterbacks bear the weight of Pittsburgh\u2019s hopes for a future face of the franchise. Right now, though, they\u2019re just trying to work their way into their new head coach\u2019s system.<\/p>\n

The Steelers held a \u201cmock game\u201d practice yesterday, which McCarthy called a \u201creview\u201d practice. And he spent an inordinate amount of time on the field on which Allar and Howard worked. He knows what he has in Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph, after all. So what do we know about the young guys up to this point? Not much, according to Mark Kaboly.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrew Allar is what he is right now. He\u2019s got an absolute cannon of an arm, and you can see [the ball] just explode out of his hands\u201d, he said on 93.7 The Fan<\/a>. \u201cHe has been somewhat accurate in some of those 7-on-7, non-contested drills, but I\u2019m not gonna sit here and say that he\u2019s turning heads, okay? It\u2019s the first three days, so settle down. Let\u2019s chill out a little bit\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Steelers selected Drew Allar in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft. A year earlier, with Mike Tomlin as head coach, they took Will Howard in the sixth round. McCarthy remains very much in the Will Howard business, though, even if he drafted Allar.<\/p>\n

Both young quarterbacks have had their ups and downs so far, as one would expect. Howard threw an interception he wasn\u2019t too happy with, Kaboly indicating that he was short with the media when asked about it. On Howard\u2019s general performance, he said, \u201cSame thing. A lot of the same things Allar was doing\u201d.<\/p>\n

McCarthy isn\u2019t counting on either one of them this year, but he is hoping that one of them could turn into a starter down the line. This season, he has Aaron Rodgers, his old faithful. One of the biggest questions he has to answer this training camp, though, is whether Howard (or Allar) is capable of serving as the backup<\/a>. And let\u2019s face it, it\u2019s far too early to even begin to seriously weigh that assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s really made a first impression\u201d, Kaboly said when asked about reports that Drew Allar is turning heads in training camp. \u201cYou have to understand what this is. This is a glorified 7-on-7, throwing to air. Come talk to me in a week and we can potentially change our mind\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, Allar might indeed turn some heads, because he has clear natural athletic ability. Between himself and Howard, the talent disparity is clear. He may look good slinging the ball, but he has to sling it to the right place, and sling it at the right time. And so far, he hasn\u2019t even slung it against a team other than his own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re just three days into training camp, but all eyes\u2014including Mike McCarthy\u2019s\u2014are on Drew Allar and Will Howard.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":961308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[8740,1800,7,5241,691,2183],"class_list":["post-961307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-93-7-the-fan","tag-drew-allar","tag-football","tag-mark-kaboly","tag-trending","tag-will-howard"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117020216787230925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961307","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=961307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/961308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}