The 2026 NFL Draft is around the corner, just a couple weeks away with Round 1 slated for Thursday, April 23. While only one former Penn State football player is projected to go in the first-round, at one point in time, quarterback Drew Allar was expected to be a high draft pick as well.
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It's obvious that the 2025 season, injured or not, burst Allar's draft bubble. He fell short of expectations and did not grow into the quarterback that the Nittany Lions anticipated when he first came to State College.
With his professional career ahead, NFL scouts, evaluators, and coordinators stated the brutal reality of why Allar never rose to the occasion.
NFL coordinator tells ESPN that Drew Allar "deserved better than what he got at Penn State"
Allar was listed as one of the more polarizing players in the 2026 draft class, which is fair to say. Going even further, an NFL coordintor gave his reasons why Allar's placement in the draft is so up in the air.
Despite his season-ending ankle injury just six weeks into his senior season, Allar always had downsides to his game when thinking about his NFL future. For the NFL coordinator, he told ESPN that footwork was a major issue.
"His footwork is an absolute mess," the coordinator said. "But improve his footwork and he can take off."
The right system, as ESPN's source added, can make Allar great. He said Allar has all the tools necessary to be the quarterback Penn State fans were promised back in 2022. Based on that analysis, the coordinator didn't even have to say the honest part out loud; but he did anyways.
"He deserved better than what he got at Penn State," the coordintor said.
While Happy Valley is home to Allar, the Nittany Lions didn't share that love back. Between footwork and confidence, Allar left Penn State leaning on a crutch — and not just literally.
"He's my favorite quarterback in the draft outside of [Indiana's Fernando] Mendoza," the coordinator said of Allar.
At 6-foot-5 with his arm, he is a quarterback prototype with a lot of promise. According to the NFL coordinator, Allar needs a Klint Kubiak-like system for him to fulfill that promise. Luckily for the quarterback, there are a lot of places in the NFL that offer that now.