Drew Allar has a long way to go before becoming a successful NFL quarterback. His journey is just starting, as he’s not even through his first set of offseason workouts just yet. But if everything goes right, CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson thinks he could look a lot like one of the better quarterbacks currently in the AFC.
“If you’re looking for the optimistic path for Allar, it might look something like Drake Maye… There are similarities. Going through my notes on Maye, many of the concerns sound familiar: inconsistent footwork, occasional accuracy lapses, a tendency to drift into pressure and stretches where he’d bypass easier throws in search of bigger plays downfield,” Wilson wrote Friday in an article for CBS Sports. “Maye’s developmental path may offer the clearest blueprint for what Pittsburgh hopes Allar eventually becomes.”
Maye certainly was something of a mixed bag coming out of college. He had inconsistencies in his mechanics, made some poor decisions here and there, and had trouble processing things on the fly. Like Allar at Penn State, Maye didn’t get a ton of help at North Carolina. But there were concerns about his overall game having hot and cold flashes.
So far, that certainly hasn’t hampered Maye in the NFL. He came into the league with starting experience and has ideal size. His arm talent was apparent, and Maye played without any fear, putting his body on the line. There certainly are some similarities with Wilson’s comparison to Drew Allar. Wilson points to one specific trait.
“When you compare Allar and Maye, the takeaway isn’t that they’re identical athletes. It’s that Allar may be a lot closer to Maye in that phase than most people realize,” Wilson wrote. “And if Pittsburgh is right, Drew Allar won’t be remembered as a reach. He’ll be remembered as one of the best values in the 2026 draft.”
Given his size and arm talent, mobility isn’t something we hear about often when it comes to Allar. And Maye certainly felt like a more mobile quarterback coming out of college. But taking off and running is something Allar can do. He ran for 732 yards during his collegiate career and scored 12 times with his legs.
Allar becoming a better runner will start with his footwork in the pocket, which Mike McCarthy is already breaking down. That’s just part of a long effort those two will undergo over the course of the 2026 season, with Allar sitting behind Aaron Rodgers and one of Will Howard or Mason Rudolph.
There’s obviously a long way to go before Allar gets close to making this comparison come true. Maye is heading into his third season, fresh off an AFC Championship. Meanwhile, Allar likely won’t see the field in 2026 and will need to prove himself further to have a chance of doing so in 2027.
But there are some similarities between the two. And if Drew Allar ends up being anything close to Maye, it’s a home run of a third-round pick, and certainly would be one of the better values of the 2026 draft as Wilson suggests.
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