The Steelers are rebuilding Drew Allar from ‘the ground up’, and the rookie quarterback couldn’t be more excited

PITTSBURGH -- Drew Allar came to Pittsburgh in his pre-draft meeting emphasizing footwork, and knowing it was going to be the biggest piece of improving his game with the Steelers.

Allar, who was the Steelers’ first third round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, visibly was working with Mike McCarthy and quarterbacks coach Tom Arth on footwork and drilling the basics of McCarthy’s scheme.

McCarthy’s scheme, the West Coast offense, is tweaking Allar’s footwork to get him into a better rhythm so he can play faster and throw with better accuracy.

“It’s really just about tweaking things,” Allar said after rookie minicamp practice. “There’s a lot of different philosophies. Every coach probably teaches footwork a little bit different and with Coach McCarthy, he has his beliefs. They’ve shown they work very well with who he has been around. It’s about me buying into that and getting it as consistent as possible. With all the QBs he’s worked with, they’ve had a tremendous amount of success. But I have to start from the ground up.”

McCarthy acknowledged the Steelers were putting Allar through the ‘QB school’ which he does every single offseason. It helped produce Aaron Rodgers into the four-time MVP he became at the NFL level, and now they hope the same with Allar.

The Steelers had Allar as the only quarterback at rookie minicamp, and that was intentional to give him as much on his plate as possible, both mentally and physically.

“We did, and we pushed him. To go 35 snaps in a team drill, that’s pushing it, but he handled it. If your quarterback can’t handle it, then you don’t get to go to the speed and the tempo and the pre-snap that we were able to go. I thought Drew did a hell of a job,” McCarthy said.

The next few weeks and months for Allar will be about getting to know McCarthy’s fundamentals and adding them to his tool chest.

The Steelers want to see that growth, too, and the tweaks are what they believe will allow Allar to reach his ceiling as a player.

“Everybody teaches footwork a little differently,” McCarthy said. “Everybody has a system of offense and how you tie your quarterback — particularly in the pass game — to that. So there’s a lot of work there. We were able to adjust some fundamentals that we think will help him.”