Drew Allar returned to Penn State for his senior year with hopes of climbing into the 2026 NFL Draft‘s top 15. Six games into the season, a broken left ankle against Northwestern ended his season, James Franklin was fired, and Allar’s stock was reset from first-round lock to Day 2 or 3 projection. How high he gets picked will depend on how much weight evaluators put on what he looks like versus how he plays.
Where Will Drew Allar Be Drafted? Jets, Steelers Among Possible Landing Spots
PFSN’s lead NFL draft analyst Ian Cummings grades Allar as a late Day 3 prospect, but concedes that the market will price him higher.
“Drew Allar is one quarterback prospect who could go a considerable amount earlier than expected,” Cummings said. “I grade Allar as a late Day 3 prospect, but there’s no denying Allar checks the more traditional cosmetic boxes that some coaches and general managers filter their QB preferences through. He’s 6’5″, 228 pounds, with clear prototypical height and weight, a rocket arm, impressive arm elasticity, and flashes of quality processing.”
Cummings names one specific match for Allar.
“In the middle-to-late rounds, it wouldn’t be surprising to see an offensive coordinator like Frank Reich of the New York Jets gamble on the tools-rich yet embattled passer,” he notes.
That fit has been incubating for weeks. Allar and roughly a dozen Penn State teammates took a private workout at the Jets’ facility in Florham Park in March. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported this week that Allar’s pre-draft visits included the Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts.
The Jets used their No. 2 overall pick on Texas Tech edge David Bailey and drafted Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq at No. 16 and Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. at No. 30, never touching the quarterback position on Night 1. Geno Smith is on a one-year deal. That leaves the door open for Reich and the Jets to bet on Allar’s upside.
Pittsburgh is the other obvious landing spot. The Steelers have four remaining picks inside the Top 100 (Nos. 53, 76, 85, and 99) and head coach Mike McCarthy has signaled interest in a mid-round quarterback with length and hand size. PFSN’s Jacob Infante penciled Allar in to the Steelers at pick 99 in his Day 2 and 3 mock draft amid the uncertainty surrounding Aaron Rodgers’ future.
“Injury shortened his 2025 season, so Drew Allar didn’t get the chance to prove himself as a more polished passer. His accuracy can be inconsistent, but he has prototypical size and arm strength for the quarterback position. Someone will take a chance on him as a developmental backup,” Infante wrote.
Drew Allar Scouting Report: Prototype Frame, Mechanics Under Construction
Cummings’ scouting report describes the exact tension driving Allar’s range.
“Drew Allar is perhaps the most quintessential ‘prototypical QB’ in the 2026 NFL Draft,” Cummings wrote. “A former five-star recruit, he has the frame at 6’5″, 235 pounds. He has the rocket arm, and he has the nimble mobility and arm elasticity to work off-platform.”
Allar’s Combine measurements confirmed the frame: 6-foot-5, 228 pounds, with a 32 3/4-inch arm and 9 7/8-inch hand size. Just four months removed from ankle surgery, he threw at the Combine and his Pro Day without participating in timed drills. His college track record includes a 26-9 record as a three-year starter and a CFP semifinal run in 2024.
The pushback is on everything downstream of the frame. “His accuracy and precision runs very hot-and-cold, his dropback and release mechanics are near liability level, and he’s not the level of rushing threat to create his way out of bad situations consistently,” Cummings wrote. He graded Allar’s 2025 body of work as “a low-price, low-risk investment in later rounds,” while warning that “his mechanics essentially need to be rebuilt from the ground up before he can take live reps reliably.”
Allar posted a PFSN CFB QB Impact grade of 78.7, a C+ score that ranked 71st among 2025 quarterbacks and 352nd all-time. In six games before the injury, he threw for 1,100 yards, 8 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions.
Allar will check all the cosmetic boxes for teams, and he’ll be just a 22-year-old rookie despite being a three-year collegiate starter, so it remains to be seen how early a team will take that gamble.
