DREW ALLAR

Ahh summertime: A lovely time in our college football schedule driven by hot-taking, list-making and sidewalk baking. Affectionally known as Talking Season, this is also when blowhards and engagement farmers tend to dictate the conversations, with not much else is going on in the sports world. And as most can attest, everyone loves a good quarterback debate.

Fresh off wrapping up my annual QB Impact Study, where I chart the top 40-50 returning passers against their most challenging opponents, this analyst is ready to join the fray and guide you towards a more fulfilling discussion. I ground through tape to find traits that translate and metrics that matter — far more illuminating than citing counting stats or scanning box scores. Plus, this exercise has a great track record for singling out the nation’s top signal callers.

This piece will focus on Penn State's Drew Allar, a traditionally-built passer.

(FOR MOBILE: TILT DEVICE SIDEWAYS FOR BETTER TABLE VIEWABILITY) 

IMPACT SLATE: Ohio State, Washington, Minnesota, Oregon, SMU, Boise State, and Notre Dame. 

The Skinny

Big, tall prototype pocket passer with sneaky, albeit lumbering movement skills. Strong arm, compact release, and limits negative plays well. Not overly vertical. Tends to take profits short avoiding risk. Inconsistent footwork hurts top-end ball placement but still dependable. 

The Fat

Drew Allar’s size, sturdiness, and strong arm make him a clear first-round candidate. He might not be the flashiest athlete, but he has traits that translate. He can see over the frontline, absorb contact, scan the second and third levels, and rifle chances all over the yard. 

Allar’s heavy hammer, out-up release is capable of firing lasers at a millisecond’s notice without any support movement. A couple of his sample attempts crossed the almighty 50-yard-threshold. As a rotational thrower, his body’s natural inertia allows him to whip passes with plenty of zeal from a variety of angles even when not stepping thru on release. In addition to that and being tall, attempts are rarely disrupted by defenders. Typically tucking in his off arm against his body, he’s able to operate neatly without flailing limbs mucking up his upper mechanics in tight confines, which often can doom longer QBs from being consistent placers of the football. Overall, he protects the football fairly well and posted a solid Interceptable Pass Rate.

(STATS COLOR CODED BASED ON PERCENTILE AMONG 44 QBS IN 2025 IMPACT STUDY; TILT TABLE SIDEWAYS ON MOBILE)

But despite his power potential and a number of darts on tape, Allar overly prefers to throw with finesse. Perhaps a side effect of who he was throwing the football to, soft tosses and touch passes riddled his sample. He can layer passes over the middle with competence and know when to cut off a route vertically with “stop placement” away from coverage.

He just appears to be much more comfortable working horizontal looks compared to vertical ones. Despite ideal stature, he doesn’t always clock open men behind coverage, anticipate future wins, or have bountiful examples of leading men outside the numbers. Subsequently, Allar’s spray failed to generate a desirable amount of explosive completions; especially without play action.

 While that happenstance can be frustrating, Allar’s biggest flaw might be his upper body hubris. Not in the sense of being reckless with his placement and believing he can make every single throw. Again, his Interceptable Pass Rate was among the top-dozen in the Impact Study. But rather, he doesn’t always value throwing from a firm foundation due to his natural arm talent. Allar’s lower body is routinely a mess. Wonky bases were particularly visible in the postseason. But, throws at all levels were affected across his sample by lazy footwork. 

But while his pressured passing performance has been poopy, Allar still avoids negative plays quite well. Even if he still prematurely drops his eyes against certain pressures, the big fella is undeniably a terror to takedown individually. He might invite late hurries a tad much floating outside the pocket waiting for designs to develop. Still, Allar regularly sheds arm tackles and is underrated navigating a crowd. His 16.3% Dropback Pressure:Sack Ratio was top10 worthy and he finished on the good side of the group average in INTA%. But while he’s an okay play extender, his deliberate moving style and unsound feet hardly make him much of a threat outside of structure or when defenses key on him. 

Statistically, Allar isn’t too sexy. After all, he failed to top 230 yards or a 7.0 Yards/Attempt across Penn State’s final five games. We’ve mentioned some examples already; but his passing profile is a mixed bag through-and-through even if butterfingers hurt his bottomline. Strong arm but conservative approach. Clean upper body but sloppy feet. Fine accuracy but too many throws get away from him. Practically for every laudable metric, a “yea but” retort isn’t too far behind. 

Even isolating snaps in sound environments prove to be dodgy. On clean dropbacks inside the pocket without guises, Allar had a high Accuracy% ying but also a high Uncatchable% yang. Which do you put more weight in: The degree of perfectly placed passes or the bountiful biffs inside of structure? For some, the noise around his numbers will require too much mental gymnastics. Still, 6’5, 240 lb passers don’t grow on trees. And his physical tools will create plenty of believers in his upside despite a rocky resume. 

Bad Take Brooks Sees a

Ben Roethlisberger type

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