For those puzzle-enthusiasts out there, it can be so rewarding when a 1,000-piece image finally comes into view after 8-12 hours of hard work. The Pittsburgh Steelers recently spread the pieces over the table; now they're trying to figure out how they go together.
Drew Allar is the ultimate puzzle—a physically gifted quarterback with a rocket arm and prototype size. But he's still in the box, and so far, the Steelers have only taken the cellophane wrapper off and opened the lid.
The Steelers' rookie minicamp gave us a glimpse into what Mike McCarthy and the team intend to do with Allar.
McCarthy knows that, for Allar to reach his potential, he needs to forget everything he thought he knew about his mechanics and build his technique, footwork, and throwing motion from the ground up.
Allar recently spoke to the media, following the Steelers' rookie minicamp, explaining what McCarthy and quarterbacks coach Tom Arth are working on with him.
“Right now it’s a lot with my lower half, just cleaning up my footwork,” Allar said. “With the [play]-action just hammering down, getting out from under center. It’s kind of new to me, some of the drop-back stuff under center…
Just playing with a little bit wider base and keeping my feet in the ground as much as I can and not getting on my toes as much. It’s just really fundamental things that I have to be aware of and be conscious of.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers are doing the only thing they can to help fix QB Drew Allar
Working on mechanics with a raw rookie quarterback is nothing new. But Steelers fans are all too familiar with Drew Allar, thanks to his polarizing Penn State career... and we know there's only one way to fix him. Thankfully, that's exactly what McCarthy and Arth intend to do.
Allar's mechanics are a mess. Shortly after the draft, I went back and watched some of his tape from both his 2024 and 2025 seasons with the Nittany Lions, and his footwork and delivery were worse than I initially thought.
Instead of living with inconsistencies in Allar's footwork and throwing motion, McCarthy is determined to re-teach Allar the mechanics of the position—right down to the most basic fundamentals.
Fans lost their minds when they saw videos of Allar going through footwork drills. But, as PennLive's Nick Farabaugh pointed out, these were slow, exaggerated movements to help Allar develop muscle memory before speeding things along.
This is a process, and we can't expect results overnight. If Steelers fans truly want McCarthy to unlock Allar's potential, this is the only way to do it. There's no guarantee that the 22-year-old quarterback won't revert to his old ways, but this was the only place to start.
Let's hope Allar can make major strides in his mechanics this summer.
Add us as a preferred source on Google