In rookie minicamp and continuing today with the start of OTAs, the Pittsburgh Steelers are focusing on QB Drew Allar’s footwork. Mike McCarthy’s spent plenty of time talking about and working with Allar on his lower body mechanics.
Clips of Allar’s reps during rookie minicamp created a predictable Internet firestorm. There were cheap social media points to dunk on him for looking “clunky” and unrefined. Others are worried about Pittsburgh wanting to fix his mechanics in the first place, and if that means Allar is destined to fail.
How much Allar improves and where his career goes won’t be known for years. But the collective “freak-out” over the topic is silly.
First, the Twitter clips of Allar’s footwork are much ado about nothing. Did it look perfect? No. It’s not supposed to. Allar is adjusting to new coaching and doing things Penn State didn’t ask him to do. He didn’t take five step drops from under center. Coaches admit the scheme wasn’t tailored with Allar in mind. Any new thing or adjustment comes with growing pains. Rookie minicamp served as Allar’s first practices. He was absorbing a new practice format, playbook and everything else on top of his footwork.
The goal isn’t to ace footwork in May. It’s to ace it in the preseason, the fall and his future NFL seasons.
Is there concern about Allar needing adjustments at all? Former GM Doug Whaley made the case. I’d argue no. He wasn’t a refined and finished product coming out of school. It’s why he didn’t go in the first round. Any team drafting Allar knew he needed work. Keeping his current mechanics would doom his NFL chances.
There’s always a line to walk. How much to tweak without overdoing it. Teams can make mistakes and it transcends sports. Former MLB infielder and first round pick Matt Antonelli, who has a great YouTube channel detailing his big-league struggles, once shared that story. His first day after getting called up to the San Diego Padres, the hitting coach changed his swing. Antonelli struggled to adjust on the fly and the change hurt him.
This situation is different. One, Allar isn’t a first-round prospect. He was a mid-rounder with real NFL concerns. Two, he doesn’t need to flip the switch. He has the entire offseason to take reps, make mistakes and get comfortable. No matter if Aaron Rodgers returns or retires, Allar won’t be counted on to play this season. There’s simply a longer runway for him to be taught and adjust.
Mike McCarthy was brought in to develop quarterbacks. He changes mechanics of nearly everyone he works with. As we covered revisiting the 2006 clinic he held, the lower half is more important than the top half.
“Everything you do is footwork,” he said.
In the same clinic, he cautioned the panel of coaches to be “sensitive” on throwing motions, and noted he’s less interested in fixing those. There are a couple of dealbreakers, but largely, a quarterback’s throwing motion should be left to whatever is comfortable and natural to the player.
It’s no surprise that McCarthy’s emphasis is on Allar’s feet. That’s what needed the most work, and that’s what could produce the biggest dividends. Better footwork means better accuracy and a much better player.
To be clear, the point isn’t to say that Allar’s footwork is fine. It’s not. That’s the point. It’s supposed to be fixed, and that’s what Pittsburgh is attempting to do.
Will it work? Allar has a long way to go. Plenty of quarterbacks have adjusted mechanics and still struggled. But McCarthy is doing nothing wrong by starting from the literal ground up with Allar.