Steelers' Drew Allar Gets Strong Vote Of Confidence With One Catch Pittsburgh Can't Rush

The Pittsburgh Steelers have spent the offseason trying to answer a difficult quarterback question without forcing the answer to arrive early. Physical talent can get a young passer into the building, but processing an NFL offense is where patience becomes part of the job description. Pittsburgh has already seen enough flashes to stay interested. Now it has to determine whether the slower parts of development eventually catch up.

Former NFL MVP Rich Gannon remains bullish on Drew Allar after watching the rookie's first summer in Pittsburgh. During a recent discussion, Gannon praised several pieces of Allar's game that made him intriguing coming out of Penn State, while acknowledging that operating and processing within an NFL system will take time.

“I liked him coming out… I think he understands the importance of ball security. He won a lot of football games at Penn State despite some challenges around him… I think he’s got really good arm talent. I think there’s a lot of upside there. I think, you know, just processing and playing within the system is going to take some time… But I love the fact that he takes care of the football. He makes good decisions. He can push the ball down the field. I think he’s got, you know, [a] really good arm, good vision,” Gannon said.

The balance inside that evaluation is the useful part. Allar does not need Pittsburgh to pretend he entered the NFL as a finished quarterback. His college tape explained why he lasted until the 76th overall pick despite possessing the frame and arm of someone who once carried much higher draft expectations. The Steelers made the bet because the expensive traits are already there. Their job is turning the rest into something repeatable.

Ball security gives that project a particularly useful starting point. Allar opened his Penn State career with 311 consecutive pass attempts without an interception, an FBS record at the time. Across four seasons, he threw 61 touchdown passes against only 13 interceptions on 1,002 attempts. That does not mean every decision was perfect, but it does show a quarterback whose mistakes rarely became gifts for the defense.

His first NFL preseason followed the same theme. Allar completed 30 of 54 passes for 351 yards and two touchdowns across three exhibitions without throwing an interception. The spectacular debut against the Green Bay Packers produced 153 yards and two scores, while the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills forced him through less comfortable nights. The production dipped, but the football still stayed away from the other jerseys.

That matters for a developmental passer because Pittsburgh can tolerate plenty while Mike McCarthy works on the rest. Footwork can be rebuilt. Timing can improve. A rookie can learn when a coverage is disguising its intentions or when the progression needs to speed up. A quarterback who already values possession gives the coaching staff a safer environment in which to make those corrections.

Allar's performance against New York offered a good example of the difference between looking polished and actually progressing. The box score was ugly, but his command of the call, huddle and pre-snap process had begun to improve even while pressure and incompletions made the afternoon look worse from a distance. Those hidden steps matter when the largest concern is whether he can eventually process everything quickly enough.

Gannon's praise of Allar's vision and decision-making also fits the larger challenge McCarthy inherited. NFL processing is not simply seeing an open receiver. The quarterback has to understand the protection, recognize leverage, anticipate how coverage will rotate and arrive at the correct answer before the rush turns a good idea into a sack. College arm talent can rescue late throws. NFL defenses are much less charitable.

That makes Allar's developmental timeline easier to understand. Pittsburgh does not need him to win the starting job in September, and there is little benefit in manufacturing urgency because a third-round quarterback showed flashes in August. The Steelers can use this season to keep cleaning his base, speeding up his reads and making the offense feel less like information he must retrieve and more like something he can operate.

The physical upside gives McCarthy a reason to be patient. At 6-foot-5 with the ability to drive the ball to every level, Allar can attempt throws that are not available to every quarterback. Gannon's point about pushing the football downfield speaks directly to that ceiling. If the processing eventually catches up, Pittsburgh will not be developing a passer whose best-case scenario depends on hiding a limited arm.

Steelers Can Afford To Let Allar's Hardest Trait Develop Slowly

The uncomfortable part of quarterback development is that the most important progress can be the least visible. Nobody leaves practice excited because a young passer correctly identified a protection adjustment for the fifth consecutive rep. That work becomes valuable months later when a blitz arrives on third-and-seven and the ball is gone before the free rusher reaches him.

Allar already has enough evidence to keep the project interesting. He protected the football at an unusual level in college, carried that habit through his first preseason and flashed the arm strength that made evaluators believe there was still more hiding underneath an uneven final chapter at Penn State. Gannon is not ignoring the processing question. He is separating it from the traits Pittsburgh does not have to teach.

A quarterback who needs time to understand an NFL system is developmental. A quarterback who needs time while also lacking the arm, vision and decision-making tools to reward that patience is a much more dangerous bet. Pittsburgh drafted Allar knowing the clock would be part of the investment, and Gannon's evaluation suggests there is still plenty worth waiting for.

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