Nobody knows who the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting quarterback will be next season, but it’s pretty clear who they hope will be their QB of the future.
Aaron Rodgers is still a wild card. It’s equally possible that he returns for one more season as it is that he rides off into the sun and officially retires.
Pittsburgh has 2025 sixth-round pick Will Howard champing at the bit to take on a bigger role in the offense. Seventh-year signal-caller Mason Rudolph is also in the mix. With 19 starts of NFL experience under his belt, Rudolph is a capable one-year bridge QB if needed.
But the Steelers invested a third-round pick in Penn State’s Drew Allar — and based off what ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported on Thursday, the team clearly has high hopes for him.
According to Fowler, Allar reminds the Steelers brass of a former Super Bowl winner.
“With third-round quarterback Drew Allar, the Steelers are betting big on coach Mike McCarthy’s quarterback development to fix Allar’s footwork,” Fowler wrote. “‘He’s really got a good feel for what that takes,’ a team source said of McCarthy’s touch in this area. Pittsburgh believes Allar has similar arm talent to a young Joe Flacco.”
Flacco led the Baltimore Ravens to an 11-5 record as a rookie. Five years later, Flacco led the Ravens to a Super Bowl championship and he won Super Bowl MVP.
Immensely talented, Allar has been the victim of poor coaching and an equally poor supporting cast.
At Penn State, Allar never had a sharp offensive mind to help him fine-tune his skills and reach his vast potential. That won’t be the case with the Steelers, where he’ll get to learn from McCarthy, who’s considered one of the top quarterback developers in the NFL.
In four years with the Nittany Lions, Allar threw for 7,402 yards, 61 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He also rushed for 732 yards and 2 more touchdowns.
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