Player: QB Drew Allar
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: Drew Allar was the only quarterback in the Steelers’ rookie minicamp, the coaching staff beginning his rebuilding process. They purposely brought in no other quarterback, wanting to focus their attention all on him. Though he shouldered a mountain of reps, HC Mike McCarthy was pleased with what he saw.
Drew Allar is probably a long way from starting, but every journey has a beginning. For Allar, that same in earnest during rookie minicamp. That’s when the Steelers’ coaches had their first opportunity to break down his game, film his movements, and begin planning the regimen to make him a better player.
The Steelers drafted Drew Allar in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft seeing legitimate potential in him. He has the look of a starting quarterback, but not the resume. That’s why he fell as far as he did, of course. But Pittsburgh is trusting in Mike McCarthy, their new head coach with a reputation for developing quarterbacks.
Of course, they are hoping McCarthy’s biggest protégé, Aaron Rodgers, is their starter again this season. And even if he’s not, they have Mason Rudolph and Will Howard to turn do if they don’t believe Drew Allar is ready. Most beat writers certainly don’t think he will be.
Of course, it’s hard to tell what to make of that, because it could be misinterpretation of the data. The Steelers are breaking down Drew Allar’s game, and frankly, some of the observations feel irrelevant. There has been talk that he grew fatigued during minicamp. Of course he did, because he was taking reps typically taken by two or three players. He had some of his passes sail, but he told reporters McCarthy told him not to think about the result of the pass. He was supposed to concentrate on his footwork, not where the ball would go.
Without the proper context, there’s very little we can read into descriptions of how Drew Allar looked. We know that Mike McCarthy claims to have gotten what he wanted out of the young quarterback. Of course, we also know that he is ceaselessly positive when speaking about players, too. But he did show that he has an NFL arm, if nothing else, and that’s a starting point.
With the 2025 season behind us and the new league year underway, we still have stock to take. Already promisinga year of change, they are shaking things up. That is unavoidable, of course, when you gut the coaching staff. Mike Tomlin’s resignation will fundamentally change this football team, including the playoffs on the roster.
After a long season, we have finally seen that this Steelers team is playoff-bound. But they also showed that their progress was actually minimal,since they made it no further. Two years in a row, with two different quarterbacks, they went 10-7 and lost in the Wild Card Round. The only differences are they ended the season on a higher note and won the division. But it didn’t help.
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