The Steelers never brought in another quarterback other than rookie third-round pick Drew Allar for rookie minicamp, which is abnormal. At the very least, teams will typically bring somebody in as a tryout, just to have a second arm to run through the practices. According to HC Mike McCarthy, however, they did this by design.
“We did, and we pushed him”, he said of Allar as the lone quarterback during rookie minicamp, via the Steelers’ website. “To go 35 snaps in a team drill, that’s pushing it, but he handled it. We kind of gauged it yesterday to see how we’d work through it, and he’s a big part of it”.
The Steelers also have Mason Rudolph and Will Howard at quarterback, neither of whom were eligible for rookie minicamp. They drafted Howard last year, and he spent most of the year on IR, which counts as an accrued season. Had he spent the year on the practice squad, instead, he would have been eligible. But McCarthy wanted Drew Allar doing all the work this weekend, anyway. And the rookie didn’t mind one bit, seeing it as a benefit.
“I do think so, just because I was able to ask a ton of questions”, Allar said of it being a benefit to be the lone quarterback there, via the Steelers’ website, noting that he’ll have the other quarterbacks around the next time he works. “Any time you can talk to Coach McCarthy one-on-one, especially when it’s about quarterback play and fundamentals, I feel like I’ve grown a lot. I really just understand his philosophy a lot more the last two days”.
The Steelers selected Drew Allar 76th overall in the 2026 NFL Draft, their first of three third-round selections. The Penn State quarterback is a very “toolsy” prospect, but comes with some warnings. Aside from the injury that ended his season last year, his career took the wrong trajectory. McCarthy scouted him hard, however, and believes he sees the path to fixing his game. And that was a part of working with him extensively during this two-day minicamp phase, seeing how he handles it. Especially from the neck up, simply having what it takes to run the practice.
“To make sure the defense is seeing the 4-5 different personnel groups and those types of things, that’s what defense needs”, McCarthy noted. “They need the formations, they need the motions, they need the communication, and they need to make the adjustments. I felt really good about that. If your quarterback can’t handle it, then you don’t get to go to the speed and the tempo and the pre-snap that we were able to go. I thought Drew [Allar] did a hell of a job”.
There’s also the fact that this is the Steelers’ first look at Allar, whereas McCarthy has already worked with Howard and Rudolph thanks to their additional veteran minicamp work in the preceding weeks. Teams with new head coaches have that benefit, so this was the time to learn about Allar.
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