Penn State’s Drew Allar improves draft stock amidst lingering questions [opinion]
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STATE COLLEGE – Someone asked Drew Allar on Wednesday about Danny O’Brien, the former Penn State quarterbacks coach who’s now on James Franklin’s staff at Virginia Tech.
O’Brien was a mentor and a friend to Allar. Still is.
“I talk to Danny like every day,” he said after an impressive workout at Penn State’s Pro Day. “He’s somebody I really look up to. He taught me a lot about football. He gets a lot of criticism for unknown reasons.”
Allar probably would say the same thing about himself in private moments.
He owns the highest completion percentage and lowest interception rate in Penn State history.
He ranks third in career touchdown passes and fourth in career passing yards.
He led the Nittany Lions to 23 wins in his two full seasons as the starter, including their first College Football Playoff appearance and first two CFP wins.
Many Penn State fans, though, won’t let him forget his 0-5 record against Ohio State, Oregon and Michigan or his late-game interception against Notre Dame in the 2025 Orange Bowl. They look at his college career as a disappointment.
Five months after he suffered a season-ending broken ankle, Allar’s healthy and looking ahead to the NFL draft April 23-25 in Pittsburgh.
“Obviously it wasn’t an ideal ending to the season with me being out,” he said. “I took that as an opportunity to grow and learn from that and make myself a better player athletically and mechanically.
“It gave me a good physical and mental reset to look back into myself, focus on myself and get myself better.”
His stock is on the rise after his performance at the NFL combine and Wednesday at Penn State’s Pro Day. Several ESPN draft analysts, including Mel Kiper Jr., rank him among the top five quarterbacks in the draft.
Which probably leaves his harshest critics shaking their heads.
“Allar has prototypical size and arm strength,” ESPN’s Jordan Reid wrote. “He’s an above-average intermediate passer who isn’t afraid to test tight windows and can accurately hit routes in between the numbers.
“He exhausts progressions and delivers to targets, and he has more than enough arm strength to succeed at the next level. He also has the ability to navigate the pocket and gain yardage that’s available.”
Expectations for Allar were off the charts since he became the first five-star quarterback to commit to James Franklin at Penn State. His greatest fault was that he didn’t live up to them. Maybe it was never possible.
Fans wanted to see him as a freshman in 2022 when he was Sean Clifford’s backup. The following season, he couldn’t deliver a win at Ohio State or against eventual national champion Michigan but he did throw a game-winning touchdown pass against Indiana.
In 2024, Allar unfairly received much blame for a home loss to the Buckeyes, Penn State’s only defeat of the regular season.
The first of two Lions possessions inside the 5-yard line ended when cornerback Davison Igbinosun stole a pass out of the hands of Harrison Wallace III in the end zone. The second ended after three straight Kaytron Allen runs and Allar’s fourth-down incompletion when Ohio State double-covered Tyler Warren.
Allar’s heroic performance in a comeback victory over USC that season often is overlooked. He passed for 391 yards, including two fourth-down completions to Julian Fleming on a game-tying drive before Penn State won in overtime.
He also threw three strikes for touchdowns in the Fiesta Bowl against Boise State, which also is forgotten.
Why? Because he threw interceptions on Penn State’s final possessions against Oregon in the 2024 Big Ten title game, Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl and the Ducks in the 2025 Big Ten opener.
Allar was seen as a potential No. 1 overall pick before last season began, before he injured his ankle and before the Lions stumbled to a 7-6 record.
Of course, that’s not going to happen. That will be Fernando Mendoza. Where exactly will Allar be drafted? Most of the credible analysts project him to be a third- or fourth-round pick, including Reid.
“Allar has moments where he puts the ball too high or low,” Reid wrote. “He tends to make receivers work harder than they should to secure catches.”
That might be true, but Allar never had great wide receivers in his two-plus seasons as the Penn State starter. No one was in the same company as Chris Godwin, Jahan Dotson or KJ Hamler.
“In what is a jumbled group of quarterbacks (in the third and fourth rounds), Allar has far and away the best physical traits of the bunch,” Reid wrote. ”But his accuracy has yet to improve.
“There likely will be a team that convinces itself that it has the right coaching to help Allar improve his mechanical flaws, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise if he’s drafted earlier than expected.”
The three best landing spots for Allar’s sake might be the Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles. Sean McVay, Mike McCarthy and Nick Sirianni all have positive track records with quarterbacks and have or probably will have veteran quarterbacks who can mentor Allar.
“I don’t know what round, what pick or what team is going to draft me,” Allar said. “All I can hope for is an opportunity to go into a good situation, compete, make myself a better player and contribute to winning.”
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