A bitter end to their third straight loss, which made them the first team in 47 years to lose back-to-back games when favored by more than 20 points, became even more bitter when the Penn State Nittany Lions lost third-year starting quarterback Drew Allar for the remainder of the 2025 season.
A late tackle knocked Allar out of Saturday's home game against Northwestern with an apparent lower leg/ankle injury. The specifics of the nature of the season-ending injury have yet to be publicized.
Whether you love him or hate him, you absolutely hate to see a player go down at any point during a game or a season, and the fact that Allar’s NCAA career has ended so abruptly makes it a tough pill for Penn State fans to swallow, even for as frustrating as this season has been.
Aside from his recovery, his focus will now undoubtedly shift toward the 2026 NFL Draft. Given how his 2025 season was going before the injury, it might actually be a blessing in disguise that he gets to shift his focus to the pro game a few months early.
Several analysts suggested toward the end of the 2024 season that Allar should declare for the 2025 NFL Draft, based on the idea that the overall lack of top-tier quarterback talent and depth made him almost a surefire first round selection.
There has since been much discussion suggesting that his decision to return has hurt his draft stock.
It’s hard to disagree with that assessment.
For as much as those same analysts felt his performance in the Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game against Notre Dame in January lowered his draft stock and thus played a key role in his decision to return to school, his performance during his six starts in 2025 was below average at best.
His top passing output of 217 yards came against Nevada, he threw an inexplicable interception against FCS Villanova, and he completed just 56.5% of his passes against Villanova and FIU.
He did not lead Penn State to a win against a single opponent ranked higher than No. 123 in the FPI, and nearly half of his 137 passing yards against Northwestern – matching his total from the Oregon loss – came on what initially looked like a short yardage completion to wide receiver Devonte Ross.
The silver lining here is that much of the blame for Penn State’s struggles, even for as much criticism as Allar gets, has been placed on the playcalling of second-year offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki – and of course, 12th-year head coach James Franklin, who has since been fired.
Allar’s potential as an NFL starter has largely been attributed to his 6’5”, 235-pound frame and his status as a “pocket passer” with good arm strength, which supposedly means he “fits the mold” of what it takes to be a successful professional quarterback.
But the fact that, in three years as Penn State's starter, all fans really saw were “flashes” of potential here and there quickly led to the “overhyped” label, and it stuck.
Yet if you are truly among those who blame coaching for his lack of development – or even regression – perhaps there is still hope that he can end up in the right NFL coaching situation and have a quality career in the pros.
Once the outright favorite to go No. 1 overall this coming April, Allar has recently taken a significant tumble.
But he still (somehow) has a puncher’s chance.
That is, at least according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
Allar was most recently listed at +6000 to be selected with the first overall pick in this coming spring’s NFL Draft, tying him for 15th on the list.
Notably, this does not mean his average draft prediction is No. 15; it merely means that there are currently 14 players with a better chance of being taken at No. 1. In many mock drafts, he is no longer a day one selection, and in some, he’s dropped out of rounds two and three as well.
A lot can change over the next six and a half months, and let’s not forget how little the “experts” really know in many cases. Mock drafts seemingly change by the hour just so new ones can be published each morning.
Shedeur Sanders was once projected to go No. 1 overall, and even up until draft night, there were mock drafts that had him going at No. 2. Skip ahead 142 picks later, and he was finally taken in round five by the Cleveland Browns, where he is now the backup to third-round pick Dillon Gabriel.
I’m probably stating the obvious when I say that I don’t think there’s any way Allar is an opening day starter on an NFL roster come fall of 2026, but he should still generate plenty of interest in the draft.
The NFL does currently feel like it lacks top-tier quarterback talent, aside from maybe four or five franchises, yet at the same time, there remains an abundance of quality quarterbacks across the league who are under no immediate threat of being demoted.
If a team does take a swing at Allar (and we don’t mean at No. 1 – or maybe we do, who knows?), it’s probably going to be a team with an aging veteran quarterback, an injury-prone quarterback, or no clear number one quarterback.
Can Sean McVay work his magic on Allar with the Los Angeles Rams behind Matthew Stafford? Could a trip slightly southwest of Happy Valley see him position himself as Aaron Rodgers’ successor in Pittsburgh?
Would the Cincinnati Bengals be smart to take a flier on the Ohio native, given the fact that Joe Burrow has suffered three season-ending injuries in six years? What about the Miami Dolphins with Tua Tagovailoa?
Are the Cleveland Browns in position to add the hometown kid’s name to the seemingly never-ending list on the back of the infamous Browns QB jersey? Are the New York Jets in position to "ruin" yet another quarterback prospect, only to set him up for eventual success elsewhere? Will the Las Vegas Raiders finally find a new franchise signal caller?
There are other intriguing options to consider here, but they only make sense if Allar truly has what it takes to land (and stay) on an NFL roster.
Aside from the somewhat perplexing discussion about his frame making him the ideal NFL quarterback, there’s very little to go by to truly make that assessment one way or another. And let's be honest; there are more than a handful of examples that support the idea that it's extremely hard to predict what will translate – and what won't – from college to the NFL.
The real question right now is whether his draft stock looks closer to what it did 12 months ago, or to what Shedeur’s looked like on draft night in late April.
Yes, he still has a puncher’s chance to go No. 1 overall, but let’s be realistic: given his recent slide, the answer appears to be the latter.