Drew Allar’s NFL combine poured salt in open wounds for Penn State fans

Whether he was QB1 or QB4 in the 2022 high school recruiting class, everyone agreed that Drew Allar was a five-star talent. That talent was apparent from the moment he took the field at Penn State in 2023 as Penn State’s starting quarterback. Yet it never manifested into a prolific statistical season, a championship, or any big-game success. 

Though he led the Nittany Lions to the College Football Playoff semifinal in 2024, Drew Allar’s career in Happy Valley will be remembered as an era of unfulfilled promise. Though he most clearly represents it, as quarterbacks tend to do, Allar doesn’t necessarily bear all the weight of that disappointment. 

Allar wasn’t good enough in the big moments. His clinching interceptions against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl and Oregon in Week 5 of the 2025 season will be the lasting proof of that assertion. However, the talent around him, particularly at wide receiver, was one of the biggest reasons he and they continually fell short. 

His college career is over, as is James Franklin’s tenure, but those wounds have yet to completely heal, and Allar’s throwing session at the NFL Scouting Combine on Saturday in Indianapolis was another reminder of his time in Happy Valley. 

The 6-foot-5, 228-pound passer had his impressive arm talent on full display, but like so often was the case at Penn State, his receivers failed to come down with some of his best throws of the workout. 

Drew Allar’s NFL Combine throwing session looking eerily similar to his Penn State career

The good news for Allar is that NFL evaluators on hand at his workout aren’t going to ding him for drops by his receivers. All that matters is that he got the ball there on time and on target, and for much of the workout, he did. 

Allar, even coming off a season-ending ankle injury that shortened the final year of his Penn State career, was built to shine in a setting like the combine, throwing on air with no pressure. In game settings, his accuracy tended to ebb and flow, often affected by his inconsistent footwork. With his long levers, that footwork, and his throwing mechanics were more easily disrupted by a muddy pocket. Then, once he fell out of rhythm, it typically took some time to find it again. 

None of that showed up in Indy, how could it? Without defenders bearing down on him, Allar’s footwork and mechanics were easily replicable, and a series of big-time throws downfield were the result. 

Allar has been considered one of the biggest risers at the combine and has a chance to be QB3 in this class behind Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson. He may find his way in the NFL with a better group of wide receivers, but it’ll take more than a reliable group of pass-catchers for all of his flaws to dissipate.