Did NFL Teams Encourage Penn State's Drew Allar to Enter the 2025 Draft?

The NFL Scouting Combine didn't seem to launch any additional quarterbacks into the 2025 NFL Draft's top 10 spots, where only Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward currently reside. But what if a big-time Big Ten quarterback had decided to declare for the draft? What if that quarterback was Penn State's Drew Allar? Could he have been a top-10 pick this year?

According to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, it's certainly possible. Breer reported from the Scouting Combine that some teams "actively encouraged" the Penn State junior to declare for the 2025 NFL Draft. And, had Allar done so, that he could have been a top-10 pick. This is exceptional news for Allar, whose agent and advisory team certainly knew this information before but now can deploy it to create a super-version of the Penn State quarterback.

Allar is a model type-and-tools quarterback. He's big and big-armed. He showed the ability to throw passes to all points of the field last season. He made cross-field throws look like a middle-school project. He had fire and touch. Some of his best passes went uncaught or intercepted, which wasn't his fault. And Allar demonstrated scrambling and running range that proved he's more than a granite block waiting to be carved. In short, Allar was just the quarterback type NFL front offices love to project several years down the road.

Still, Allar had his faults, which he'll be the first to idenfity and address. The quarterback occasionally reverted to his favorite target, tight end Tyler Warren, too often. He missed some open receivers as a result. Allar also didn't throw open his receivers downfield often enough. And there was the final play of the Orange Bowl, on which Allar combined with receiver Omari Evans to make a two-pronged mistake.

Evans didn't help Allar with his out-of-place route, and Allar got unsteady as the pocket closed around him. Instead of eating the sack or truly throwing the ball away, Allar got between decisions, producing an interception that Notre Dame turned into the game-winning field goal. It was the last play of an inconsistent postseason for the quarterback.

Allar completed just 12 passes, none to a receiver, in the Orange Bowl. He began the postseason with a completion rate of 71.6 percent, fifth nationally at the time, and a passer efficiency rating of 167.5 (seventh). In four postseason games, including the Big Ten title game, Allar didn't complete 60 percent of his passes. His efficiency rate didn't top 150, and the quarterback became progressively less consistent: 13-for-22 vs. SMU in the first round of the College Football Playoff, 13-for-25 against Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl and 12-for-23 against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.

Though Allar announced his decision to return before the postseason began, that finish solidified it. Since then, Allar has been the most intentional player in Penn State's offseason program.

"He's hungry," Penn State tight end Luke Reynolds said recently of Allar. "You can see he's always been a pro in his approach, and I was able to see him when I first got here as an early enrollee last spring. His development through that whole year, developing as a mobile passer, as a running quarterback at times when he needs to. So he's just hungry right now. He's trying to get better, like the rest of us, and he's gonna do whatever he needs to do in the offseason."

And, as Penn State coach James Franklin said, the Orange Bowl motivates Allar as it does the entire team. Franklin also sees Allar putting that game, and his decision to return, into his entire offseason approach.

"When the season ends the way it does, everybody's disappointed, and there's typically nobody more disappointed than the players themselves and the coaches because of how much time and effort you put into it," Franklin said. "... I think this experience this year will be helpful, very similar to what you've seen with other programs. We understand what it's like. You have a plan, you have a routine, you kind of go back and do an after-action review about how things went as a program. The players do that as well, and then you attack it.

"So yeah, I think everybody is as disappointed as you could be when it ends, but there's also a ton to be proud of and appreciative of. But the most important thing is that we use every experience we have, both positive and negative, to get better and grow. That's what I see all of our guys doing, including Drew."