STATE COLLEGE — There’s a world in which Penn State’s pro day would have been in a circus with everyone in town to see Drew Allar, the No. 1 QB in the 2026 NFL Draft.
But that is not the world we live in. Instead, Holuba Hall was filled with more curiosity than certainty on Wednesday.
There wasn’t a horde of general managers and head coaches at Penn State’s pro day watching Allar with bated breath. But there were interested scouts, taking a long look at one of the most polarizing prospects in the draft.
Wednesday served as another opportunity for Allar, who, after a disappointing end to his Penn State career, is pushing to prove himself ahead of April’s draft.
“I feel really good with everything I’ve done up until this point throughout my career at Penn State, and then the last two, three months of training,” Allar said after his workout. “But now it’s just taking it a week at a time, a day at a time, doing my best on all these visits, these zoom calls, these interviews and then just let the chips fall where they may.
“I don’t know what round, what pick, what team I’m going to be drafted to. All I can hope for is the opportunity to go into a good situation and compete and make myself a better player.”
NFL Draft prospects typically lean on a message similar to Allar’s. They say they don’t know where they’ll land, even though most have a pretty good idea of what range they’ll fall in.
It’s easy to believe that Allar truly doesn’t know how high (or how low) he’ll go when the 2026 NFL Draft kicks off on April 23 in Pittsburgh.
The Athletic’s Dane Brugler doesn’t have Allar ranked inside his top 100 prospects. ESPN ranked Allar as the No. 166 player overall and the No. 6 quarterback in the class. That would suggest Allar will land somewhere on Day 3 of the draft, likely in the fourth or fifth round.
But this quarterback class is more unpredictable than past years. Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza will go No. 1 overall. Alabama’s Ty Simpson could go late in the first round. Miami’s Carson Beck, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier and Arkansas’ Taylen Green are intriguing prospects, but no one has cemented themselves as the QB3 of the class.
Which means it’s still a possibility for Allar to be the third quarterback off the board.
In most years, the third QB selected would be a first-rounder. But it’s within the realm of possibility that a team — maybe one with an offensive-minded head coach and an aging starting quarterback — will take Allar in the second round after falling in love with his raw talent.
Allar wowed a lot of people with his NFL Scouting Combine performance last month. The 6-foot-5, 228-pound quarterback showed the NFL world that he still has a cannon arm, uncorking deep balls at Lucas Oil Stadium and proving that he can make every throw.
It was a big step for Allar, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury last October and rehabbed with the intent of throwing in front of scouts, coaches and executives in Indianapolis.
Allar had that opportunity again on Wednesday. And he reaffirmed he would be healthy enough to play tomorrow despite not running at the Combine or pro day.
“My game plan was to come out here and show teams what I can do from a throwing standpoint,” Allar said. “It was just to kind of showcase a lot of different things that I either put on tape or at the next level that you see a lot on Sundays. … I feel really good about everything.”
Of course, Allar’s arm talent has never been a question mark. It was his big-game decision-making and overall inconsistent play that held him back from cementing himself as an all-time program great and a first-round pick.
But as he tries to fulfill his full potential in the NFL regardless of where lands in the draft, Allar will do so knowing he gave it his best shot at Penn State.
“I would just say as a guy that did everything he can to put his head down and work and make Penn State a better place,” Allar said, when asked how he wants to be remembered in Happy Valley.
“Obviously, I would have liked to bring in more hardware. I mean, that’s part of the reason why I came back. It didn’t happen. But I feel like between myself and all my teammates that are out here today, we put Penn State in a really good position. So I’m really proud of that.”