Spring might be a time for hope and renewal, and even in Pittsburgh the grass has greened and leaves have returned to the trees as the NFL Draft commences in late April.<\/p>\n
But when new Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike McCarthy evaluates football\u2019s most important position while his team is on the clock, he isn\u2019t thinking about sunshine and warm temperatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, the most important games are in December and January,\u201d McCarthy said recently. \u201cTo be able to play in those games outdoors, it requires to play a certain way.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy and general manager Omar Khan have referenced the desire to acquire an \u201cAFC North quarterback\u201d as their next face of the franchise.<\/p>\n
And though the organization originally targeted this year\u2019s draft as its best method by which to find that man, myriad circumstances flipped the 2026 quarterback draft class on its head. What once was projected to be one of the best draft-eligible groups of signal-callers in recent memory instead devolved into what many observers see as an underwhelming collection of QBs.<\/p>\n
Perhaps in part because of that, the Steelers seem intent on bringing back 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers to start at quarterback in 2026. They also have returnees in veteran backup Mason Rudolph and last year\u2019s sixth-round pick, Will Howard.<\/p>\n
That probably won\u2019t prevent them, though, from taking a shot on a quarterback in this year\u2019s draft held later this month in Pittsburgh. And if they do, former Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys coach McCarthy prefers that QB to be able to weather the elements.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to change a little bit going from Green Bay, Wis., to Dallas, Texas, on the expectations of how I think I can play with a quarterback as opposed to how I know I can play,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201c(Longtime Packers) Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers are Hall of Fame quarterbacks. But they both have long arms. They both have 10-inch hands. And to win playoff games, to win games in December \u2026 (former Steelers QB) Ben Roethlisberger is the same way, you\u2019d have to play against him in cold weather. Your guy\u2019s got to throw better than the other guy in the big games, or you\u2019ve got to try to put them in position to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The search for an AFC North-style quarterback in this year\u2019s draft might begin with a player who grew up a couple hours from Acrisure Stadium in Medina, Ohio. He also played in college less than three hours the other direction, at Penn State.<\/p>\n
Drew Allar had the third-biggest hands (97\u20448 inches) and second-longest arms (323\u20444 inches) of any quarterback measured at the February combine. Only one combine QB is taller (6-foot-5) and only three heavier (228 pounds).<\/p>\n
Allar, arguably, has the strongest arm of any of this year\u2019s draft-eligible quarterbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a quarterback coach can work with and do some things there,\u201d ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said during a recent conference call with media. \u201cHe can make the tight-window throws. He\u2019s effortless throwing a football, and he can spin it. And he can move. He\u2019s a great kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there\u2019s a lot to work with there with Drew Allar, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s conceivable and it\u2019s possible he could be the third quarterback taken. (But) could he be a disappointment? Could be, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allar\u2019s potential to disappoint stems largely from less-than-stellar outings while in many of his biggest games in college, including a pair of duds in top-10 matchups against Ohio State and interceptions on his final throw of defeats in the College Football Playoff semifinals to Notre Dame in January 2025 and in a top-10 matchup against Oregon this past September.<\/p>\n
But with the Steelers having no shot at the top quarterback in this draft class \u2014 Indiana\u2019s Fernando Mendoza is going No. 1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders \u2014 Allar might be their next-best realistic option.<\/p>\n
Allar is battling with the likes of LSU\u2019s Garrett Nussmeier and Miami\u2019s Carson Beck to be the third quarterback selected, likely on Day 2 of the draft. After Mendoza, the lone quarterback projected as a likely first-round pick is Alabama\u2019s Ty Simpson.<\/p>\n
As a Tennessee native who played in the SEC, however, Simpson doesn\u2019t fit that \u201cAFC North\u201d mold. He\u2019s 4 inches shorter and 17 pounds lighter than Allar, with hands a full half-inch smaller than him and an arm length below the median for this year\u2019s QB draft class.<\/p>\n
Perhaps more important, Simpson did not become a starter until this past season. And over his final six starts, he had a pedestrian seven-to-four TD\/INT ratio and averaged just 184.3 passing yards per game while going 3-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just how high of a pick is he worthy of,\u201d NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said of Simpson during a conference call with media. \u201cIs he worthy of a first-round pick? When you have the limited number of starts that he has, teams are going to have to get comfortable with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the ways they can do that is by, (first), watching him move around and throw and getting a better feel for his physical skill set. And then, probably more importantly, just meeting with him and seeing how he understands the game. He\u2019s the son of a coach, which I think he\u2019ll do really well in that environment. But (teams) have to try to get beyond that (lack of starts) issue, which is a real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spring might be a time for hope and renewal, and even in Pittsburgh the grass has greened and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-579022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}