The Pittsburgh Steelers started the preseason with a 28-9 victory over the Green Bay Packers at Acrisure Stadium on Thursday night. However, the biggest story of the game wasn’t the score, but rather how rookie quarterback Drew Allar performed.
Allar came in at the end of the third quarter and completed 10 of 13 passes for 153 yards and two scores. Even though Allar faced the third-and-four-string Green Bay defense, it was still critical to see him put up a good performance. Allar’s outing left Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport naming him one of the biggest “winners” of Week 1 of the preseason.
“Allar was admittedly the third Steelers quarterback to enter Thursday’s win over the Green Bay Packers, but he didn’t waste any time making an impression—his first pass attempt of the game was a 74-yard completion,” Davenport wrote on Sunday.
“Allar polished off that drive with a three-yard touchdown scamper. The next time the Steelers had the ball, Allar led the team on a 10-play, 89-yard drive that culminated in a five-yard touchdown pass. The drive after that, it was 10 plays, 60 yards and a four-yard score. For the game, Allar went 10-of-13 for 153 yards, two passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and a flag firmly planted in the battle to be the No. 3 quarterback in the Steel City.”
Steelers Took Allar in the Third Round
The Steelers selected Allar with the No. 76 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. However, Allar is not a typical third-round quarterback. Heading into his senior season at Penn State, he had a chance to play himself into the No. 1 pick in the draft. Unfortunately, a broken left ankle during a game against Northwestern on Oct. 11 sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
Allar wasn’t playing well in the first half of the season, and an injury kept him from showcasing his talent, causing him to slide down the draft board. If Allar had played a full season in 2025, there’s a good chance he would have been a first-round pick. Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy doesn’t see Allar as a third-rounder, but rather as a first-round talent.
McCarthy Sees Allar as a Round 1 Talent
“When we drafted Drew, we felt like we were getting a first-round pick,” McCarthy said Friday on the “Pat McAfee Show,” via Behind The Steel Curtain’s Joey Bray. “When you know just the value that our personnel department had on him, you know, coming out of his junior year, and just, you would sit there and listen to all the reports and just, as you talk about the timeline of his career, what happened this senior, he had the injury, and so forth, so, and all that’s holding true.”
Allar is currently listed as the fourth quarterback on Pittsburgh’s depth chart. But if he can put together two strong performances—one against the New York Jets on Friday and another against the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 27 — there’s a good chance he could move up to the No. 3 or even the No. 2 quarterback position when the regular season kicks off in early September.
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