Steelers take swing at QB in 3rd round, land Penn State's Allar

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In front of their home crowd, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Penn State quarterback Drew Allar with the 76th overall pick in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Pittsburgh is still waiting for Aaron Rodgers to decide on his future after the four-time NFL MVP played his age-42 season with the team in 2025.

The Steelers also roster longtime backup Mason Rudolph and Will Howard, whom they drafted in the sixth round last year.

Allar lacked consistency at Penn State but displayed great arm strength. The 22-year-old completed 63.2% of his passes for 7,402 yards and 61 touchdowns against 13 interceptions across four college campaigns.

Allar's predraft profile

Is Allar one of the six best quarterbacks in this class right now? Probably not. But draft picks are made with the future in mind. If you're a team that's confident in developing players at this position, then Allar's physical traits should be more than enough to pique your interest. The Penn State product is a prototypical quarterback prospect in terms of size, arm strength, and athletic ability. He showed flashes of the upside during his time in Happy Valley, including on a run to the CFP semifinal in 2024.

The hope was that he'd put it all together this past season as a senior and emerge as a first-rounder in this quarterback class. It didn't quite work out that way, as he got off to a slow start in 2025 before suffering a season-ending broken ankle in October. As a result, Allar is probably a Day 3 lottery ticket. He'll likely need to follow the long-winded Jordan Love development path if he's going to work through his struggles with accuracy and processing. Those efforts may have to start with a ground-up overhaul of his mechanics - a long shot, to be sure. Still, you can't teach these kinds of physical skills. The mere chance that he taps into his upside makes him worth a swing later in the draft.