LOS ANGELES — Drew Allar might be new to the NFL, but his first professional home provides him with some familiarity.
Allar will get to back up Aaron Rodgers, a quarterback he looked up to growing up. But he’s also joining an offensive system that he already knows with the Pittsburgh Steelers, believing the team that selected him in the third round of April’s draft has created a “full circle moment” for him.
“The West Coast offense in general was something I studied a lot in the offseasons at Penn State,” Allar told me during a conversation this offseason at the NFLPA Rookie Premiere. “Kind of the newer versions like the [Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean] McVay and [San Francisco 49ers head coach] Mike Shanahan. I was on that trend for the last four years.
“But it’s now kind of a full circle moment for me, going back and seeing how everything really started. Why the drops are a certain way and how they match up with the progressions. And where the concepts originated from. It’s really cool to be a part of that. It’s a lot of information, but it’s starting to slow down for me.”
And, as Allar mentioned, he will now get to learn from one of the innovators of the West Coast offense: Mike McCarthy. The new Steelers head coach learned from the originators of the scheme during his time as an assistant coach with the Kansas City Chiefs, including Paul Hackett. Hackett cut his teeth in San Francisco, learning from Bill Walsh, the originator of the West Coast offense.
McCarthy would go on to coach Joe Montana in Kansas City before coaching Brett Favre and Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers. He also worked under another Walsh protégé, offensive guru Mike Holmgren. McCarthy has been reunited with Rodgers in Pittsburgh, and Allar said he’s privileged to share a quarterback room with the future Hall of Famer.
“I’m really excited to learn from him,” Allar told me. “With him being in Coach McCarthy’s system in Green Bay, it’s beneficial because he knows the system inside and out, even though he hasn’t played in it in five or six years at this point. And just everything he’s going through in his career, playing in tens of thousands of snaps, how much experience and knowledge he has — the nuances of playing the position of quarterback, reading coverages, the defensive tendencies — any little thing I can pick up to help me process faster and be more accurate, I’m all in for it.”
As Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy reunite this season, Drew Allar is looking to learn from the two of them in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
Allar didn’t always play quarterback. His father, Kevin, was Allar’s youth football coach, and as one of the bigger kids on the team, Allar was relegated to playing tight end, fullback, defensive end and linebacker during his early days of tackle football.
But the chance to play quarterback full-time emerged in Allar’s first year in high school.
“We didn’t have a quarterback my freshman year, and then I always loved throwing from baseball, so I just wanted to try it out,” Allar told me.
Allar blossomed into a five-star college recruit at Medina High School, a half hour south of Cleveland. During his senior season, Allar totaled 4,444 passing yards and 48 passing touchdowns. He also recorded 406 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns. Allar helped to lead Medina to a 13-1 record, earning All-State honors. Allar was also named Mr. Football in Ohio.
“High school was fun,” Allar told me. “We were five wide and just throwing the ball every time. We were kind of a no-huddle, up-tempo offense. When we got to my senior year, [head coach Larry Laird] was very lenient with me. I probably called like 20 to 30% of the plays at the line of scrimmage my senior year. And that was always in working collaboration with him.”
Considered a first-round pick at the start of the year, Allar didn’t perform as expected and his final season at Penn State was cut short because of an ankle injury. At 6-foot-5 and 228 pounds and blessed with good movement skills, Allar showed glimpses of developing into an NFL-caliber quarterback, but remains a work in progress in the pros. It will be up to McCarthy and an experienced offensive coaching staff led by offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio and quarterbacks coach Tom Arth to develop Allar’s unique skill set.
“I believe in first impressions,” McCarthy said about Allar in Pittsburgh’s post-draft press conference with reporters. I had a chance to not only watch him play but meet him at the combine. … I like everything about him. I think he’s got room for growth. He’s a young man that can throw the ball with the best of them, and that’s a great starting point to have.”
That’s high praise from McCarthy, but an opinion not necessarily shared by an NFL quarterback evaluator I spoke with about Allar.
“I think it was a little bit of a surprise pick in the third round, given his production in college,” the NFL talent evaluator told me. “He’s got all the physical tools. He’s kind of like a create-a-player in Madden. He’s 6-5 and 230. He can throw the ball a mile. He’s got a very pretty spiral. He’s a guy that scouts absolutely love, but I think the disconnect is you’ve got to become someone who coaches absolutely love in terms of decision-making, timing and accuracy.
“I would say he’s a project. In my opinion, he’s got a long way to go. They’re investing in him as a guy that two years from now could have major upside. He’s got the prettiest deep ball on the planet, but I think most coaches would tell you, ‘Yeah, that’s great, but it’s second-and-10, and you overthrew the guy by five yards.’”
For the past year, Allar’s worked with John Beck and 3DQB here in Southern California during the offseason to prepare him for the league. Beck also worked with another former McCarthy quarterback in Dak Prescott. Allar said Beck helped to improve his footwork, getting him in better throwing positions.
Currently, Allar is No. 4 on the depth chart behind Rodgers, Mason Rudolph and Will Howard, who the Steelers took in the sixth round of last year’s draft. But he’s willing to be patient, work on his craft and try to live up to lofty expectations, playing behind one of the best to ever do it in Rodgers.
“It’s really just taking it a day at a time,” Allar told me. “They do a great job of building it out throughout practice with the quarterback in individual drills. They do a great job of emphasizing things throughout each day, just so I can get that foundation, because the footwork is a little different than what I’m used to.
“We were under center a little bit at Penn State, but not in the drop-back game. It was more run game and play-action game. So, just getting cleaner with under-center drops and drop-back footwork. And just really trying to pick up on the nuances of it. Just some different teaching, and it’s really cool to be a part of that. And kind of have another chapter to learn from and grow from. I already feel a lot more comfortable in it, and I know I’ve just got to keep my head down and keep working at it.”
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