PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s Will Howard and Drew Allar running the Steelers offense for the last week of Steelers offseason drills. Allar understands what is in front of him in the final workouts before training camp.
“Yeah it's definitely a big week,” the rookie quarterback said after voluntary workouts on the Southside on Tuesday. “You know I try to take as many mental reps as I can throughout the practice but it's different when you're the one taking those reps and you know kind of logging those in your memory bank.”
Now for Allar it’s taking what he was mostly watching Rodgers, Rudolph and Howard do in practice and not only recognize it, but react and make a play.
“It’s a big, big, week just trying to take it a play at a time and really just grow from each play and whether it's a good throw or bad throw or whatever the case is just learn from it and grow from it.”
Just a few weeks into a professional career, Allar said he feels ‘really comfortable’ in the playbook. He said the challenge has been getting more information after each practice and each install than he’s used to. He said learning this offense has really taken a chunk out of his free time. Days he’s not at the facility, he’s preparing himself.
And while comfortable, he admits hasn’t figured it out. He’s still learning and growing every day. The former Penn State quarterback said he asked a lot of questions because the goal is to have it down before the week ends. It might be a bit ambitious, but he wants to arrive in Latrobe ready and confident for whatever awaits him.
Like Will Howard experienced last year, Allar said the starting quarterback and future Hall of Famer, is a resource.
“Aaron's (Rodgers) been a huge help to not only me, but the whole room, but with me specifically,” Allar said Tuesday. “He's pulled me aside during practice to talk through some drill work or things to focus on throughout different drills. And in the film room just asking me questions of what I was seeing, what I looking at, and why.”
“Just giving me a lot of knowledge. So, I'm really excited to keep learning from him. Obviously, he's one of the best to ever do it in this game.”
The Steelers third-round pick said he doesn’t take for granted the resource he has in Rodgers and he said everyone in the quarterback room.
All the quarterbacks are going through the Mike McCarthy quarterback school where they break down to fundamentals and build it back up. That means a lot of film work watching himself, but not just what he can do better.
“I watch all the reps from the quarterbacks because there's always something you can learn from everybody,” Allar said. “Why they made a check or you know how they came to a decision to throw a ball or whatever the case is. I don't just look at myself because I know I can critique myself on film. I want to learn from everybody and see all the reps because there's so only so many reps I get, I want to see how many coverages there are, different looks as I can before I step out on the field.”
Allar notices on tape he looks like he’s playing slower, which he said is a good thing.
“I’m thinking fast, but my feet are playing slow and I’m in time and in rhythm. I know when I’m not in rhythm just based off my feet. So I feel I’ve really grown in that area of just trusting when I see it out on the field and just growing it from each rep to the next. I got to keep focusing on that.”
Steelers new head coach Mike McCarthy is watching and echoed the importance of these practice reps. Let’s see what Allar does with them.
Reps are there for the pair of quarterbacks during final OTA practices
Reps are there for the pair of quarterbacks during final OTA practices
