The 2026 NFL Draft is 11 months away.
Thereโs still a highly-anticipated college football season with the re-shuffled 12-team College Football Playoff.
For Penn State fans, itโs a season that could be the most successful and most rewarding in almost 40 years.
When itโs all said and done, Penn State could be celebrating a championship. If Penn State does this, a big reason will be the play of its star quarterback.ย
Drew Allar enters 2025 with high expectations and is looking to bounce back from a season-ending interception against Notre Dame that cost Penn State a chance at overtime and play in the national championship.
Allar has all the tools to be successful, and a second season under offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki could pay dividends. Beginning his senior year, Allar returned to Penn State to finish the job and improve his draft stock.
CBS Sports analyst Ryan Wilson thinks Allar will position himself to be a top 10 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
In his first mock draft, earlier this month, for next yearโs draft, Wilson has Allar going No. 8 overall to the Colts. Itโs a place Allar is familiar with, playing the 2024 Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis against Oregon.
โAllar might have been a first-round pick had he declared for the 2024 draft. He looks the part physically; he just needs to continue to make strides,โ Wilson wrote. โWe all saw glimpses of his first-round talent at various points last season, and if he can put it altogether in ’25, he could go from first-round lock to battling Nussmeier (and perhaps Arch, should he declare) to be QB1.โ
He has the 6-foot-5, 235-pound frame and ability to make NFL-caliber throws scouts look for. Allar completed 66.5% of his passes for 3,327 yards, 24 touchdowns, and eight interceptions last season.ย
Allar also ran for a career-best 302 yards and six TDs during his junior year and became more of a rushing threat under Kotelnicki. Without Beau Pribula and Tyler Warren, Allarโs rushing attempts could increase.ย
He led the Big Ten in touchdown passes (25) as a sophomore, and protected the ball. Allar only threw two picks that year. Heโs thrown 10 in 39 career games compared to 53 total touchdown passes.
College football analyst Josh Pate of CBS Sports thinks Allar will be the best quarterback in the Big Ten.
โI expect him to be the best QB in the league,โ Pate said.
Allar could have been one of the first quarterbacks taken in the 2025 draft. Miamiโs Cam Ward (No. 1 to Tennessee) and Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart (No. 26 to the New York Giants) were the only two quarterbacks selected in the first round. Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders was mocked by many to go in the first, but fell to Cleveland in the fifth.ย
Wilson predicts cornerback A.J. Harris to be the second Penn State player selected, being drafted No. 25 by the Packers.
Penn State begins the highly anticipated season Aug. 30 against Nevada at Beaver Stadium.
