Drew Allar heard nothing. Not the low rumble turning into “Drewwww” when he jogged onto the Acrisure turf in the third quarter. Not the building waking up. The third-round kid from Penn State was locked in on one job.
“Honestly, I was more focused on enunciating the playcall more than anything,” Allar said. “I didn’t really hear it at all.”
Three plays later he hit fellow rookie Kaden Wetjen for 74 yards on third down, punched in a 3-yard read-option keeper, and the whole “it’s only preseason” industrial complex started sweating through its polo shirts. By the time he was done he had three total touchdowns, 10-of-13 for 153 yards, and a passer rating that looked like a video game glitch. Pittsburgh beat Green Bay 28-9, and the only story that matters walked off the field wearing No. 16.
I know what you’re typing. Preseason. Backups. Packers starters mostly sat. Save it. I watched the tape energy, the poise, the zero panic. This was not a participation trophy night.
Howard Was Solid. Allar Was Different.
Will Howard did his job. Seven of nine for 86 yards, a clean two-minute drill before the half, the bounce-back after an early sack. Mason Rudolph looked like Mason Rudolph for two series. Nobody embarrassed themselves. Mike McCarthy said all three quarterbacks were “very poised” and singled Allar out as playing “very, very well.”
That is coach-speak for “the rookie just changed the temperature in the room.”
Allar’s first NFL score came on a designed keeper after that Wetjen chunk play. He said it was the first real hit he had taken since mid-October, when the ankle injury wrecked the back half of his final Penn State season, and that it got the physical part out of the way. Then he threw a 5-yard touchdown to Wetjen and a 4-yarder to fullback Riley Nowakowski like he had been doing this for five years.
The arm talent was never the question. The 6-foot-5 frame was never the question. The question was whether the kid who missed half his senior year would look like a deer in headlights when the lights actually came on. He did not. He looked bored by the moment.
“My job as a quarterback is to go out and put up points no matter what the situation is,” Allar said. “I feel like we did a good job of that.”
That is not rookie speak. That is franchise-QB energy leaking out early.
Rodgers Is Mentoring His Own Replacement
Aaron Rodgers did not dress against his old team. He stood on the sideline with a headset and turned into the most expensive quarterbacks coach in America. Howard said Rodgers walked the young guys through the little things: find your guy early, have a play ready when the headset dies, read the pressure signals from the sideline.
Rodgers talking to Allar and Howard about surviving young preseason nights is either wholesome or dark comedy, depending on how honest you want to be about the timeline. The man is widely expected to walk away after this season. He is already installing the next wave. That is either elite professionalism or a quiet admission that the future just took reps in the third quarter and scored three times.
I am not crowning Allar the Week 1 starter. I am not shipping Howard to the practice squad. I am saying the pecking order just got less theoretical. When a third-round pick walks into his first NFL game and drops 11.8 yards per attempt with zero turnovers and a rushing score, you stop treating the depth chart like a participation ribbon ceremony.
The traditional media will spend the next 48 hours doing the “well, statistically speaking, preseason completion percentage…” routine. Skip energy. Corporate throat-clearing. Ignore it. Watch the actual football. Allar processed fast, threw guys open, and finished drives. He said the real adjustment happened in OTAs and camp against Pittsburgh’s defense every day. The game felt slower because the preparation was already violent.
Stop Pretending This Was Noise
Steelers fans chanted his name before he completed a pass. That building has seen enough mediocre quarterback play to know the difference between a guy taking snaps and a guy who might actually stick. Allar gave them three touchdowns and a reason to believe the post-Rodgers era might not be another five-year scavenger hunt.
He called the night a confidence boost and immediately undercut the humility: he already felt confident because of Latrobe and the game plan McCarthy’s staff built around what he does well. Play fast. Stay comfortable. Score.
That is the whole job description.
So go ahead. Tell me it was just August football against backups. Tell me Howard still has the clearer path. Tell me third-round quarterbacks with ankle histories never become the guy. I will be right here when Allar starts stacking real snaps and those same accounts quietly delete the tweets. Who wants to be first in line to eat it?
