DK: Allar vs. Howard (finally) starts attacking issue No. 1
Now that's making the right call.
Sorry. Too easy.
In all seriousness, after Omar Khan unwillingly and unfortunately stole most of the headlines from the opening round of the NFL Draft, almost anyone would've represented an upgrade on Day 2 and, from my perspective, he'd reach well above that.
To see Khan get aggressive in going after another wide receiver following his whiff on USC's Makai Lemon the previous day, to see him trade up to No. 47 overall and add Alabama's Germie Bernard, to see him round out what could be a terrific trifecta alongside DK Metcalf and Mike Pittman ... yeah, I'll take that after only about three years of publicly pining for it.
Bernard's not part of that half-dozen wide receivers among the top 30 or so in this draft, including Lemon, who had all the scouts and analysts wide-eyed. But his solid 6-1 frame, superb hands and potential versatility make him a fit here for now and into the future. Also, for what it's worth, and that can be plenty at his position, he hardly comes across as the dubious character sort.
"They're getting a selfless guy," he'd say on this night via conference call, "a guy who's gonna do everything for the team to have success."
Uh-huh. That.
But then, to see Khan get aggressive in a different way, taking a figurative flyer on a possible, project-type quarterback in Penn State's Drew Allar ... yeah, my public pining on this count pretty much dates back to Ben Roethlisberger and Maurkice Pouncey with the matching sad-faces on the sideline that one night.
A quarterback, my friends. Another quarterback.
Look, I've made no secret of my belief in Allar's potential, and I'll reiterate for those just now eager to learn: He's 6-5, 228, he's got the biggest and best arm of anyone in the class all the way up to No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza out of Indiana, he's got mobility to match the frame and, best of all, as I've seen it, he comes with shortcomings that could be short-lived. Mechanical fare. Footwork. Reading defenses.
An awkwardly large, loud percentage of the Penn State faithful will pan the pick, I can safely predict based on precedent, most of that based on the mythical he-couldn't-win-the-big-games nonsense. But in the same breath, tellingly, they'll also confess that Allar was held back by the Nittany Lions having not a single elite wide receiver in his tenure there and, way above all else, that James Franklin was as awful at coaching games as he was elite at recruiting.
Allar fell from a once-foreseen first-rounder to the third, partly because of what's above, partly because of an ankle injury that shortened his 2025 season to six games.
Oh, I'll take that, too.
And all of this:
The throws aren't all that pristine, of course, but they're almost always effortless in release. That can't be taught. That can't be coached.
Better believe I'll take it, as well, that Tom Arth, the Steelers' quarterbacks coach, apparently acknowledged that Allar's expected to compete with Will Howard for work behind the coming season's starter and, far beyond that, for that once-and-forever far-flung concept of having a franchise quarterback again someday.
"We'll have a plan for that," Arth would say when asked how to manage reps between the two youngsters. "We're fortunate to have a really good room right now."
Nothing should matter more to this management. No more Kenny Pickett anointments. No more Mitch Trubisky experiments. No more Russell Wilson revivals. It'll obviously be one more year for Aaron Rodgers, once he's done stuffing sand between his toes, but that's got to be it.
This'll come at the cost of trading Mason Rudolph away, and I base that mostly on Mike McCarthy's candor earlier in the week in stating he won't carry more than three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. That won't help the 2026 cause. If Rodgers were to go down, it'd almost surely be Howard thrust into starting -- as Rudolph himself was in a similar scenario in 2019 -- and that's a real risk with an existing starter who'll turn 43 by Christmas.
Big whoop, I say. Has to happen. Long overdue. Ridiculously overdue.
It was always going to take multiple candidates to identify the right quarterback. It was always going to take quantity to rival the quality. It was always going to take authentic competition, not manufactured, not staged for Saint Vincent College.
If one or both of Allar and/or Howard emerges, awesome. Keep pushing. Keep prodding into the 2027 calendar, possibly even lowering the priority.
If neither emerges or even progresses to management's satisfaction, then hey, I keep being told that the 2027 draft will be the one, true buncha-quarterbacks gold mine we've all been awaiting for nearly half a decade. Which is when Khan can utilize some of this obscene wealth of draft capital he's amassed without spending any of it. (Even now, through three rounds, he's put all five of his 12 picks into players.)
I love this.
Here we go, as they say. Finally.
DAVE DICELLO
• There's our Downtown, and then there's all the rest.
Dave DiCello, the legendary local photographer and a friend shot that gem just above late Friday night, and it features the giant screen that's being draped across the width of the Wyndham, adorned by colorful images.
Good luck, whoever gets this event next. We don't make it a fair fight.
• Be sure to check all four of Chris Halicke'sbreakdowns of the Friday picks.
• Another 260,000 on hand, per the NFL, and another league record, this one for Day 2.
• No safety issues of any significance again, either. Rough week for the AM radio disciples, but a joyful one for those of us who care about the heart and soul of our enter region.
• I can't express enough appreciation to everyone who's stopped -- and shopped -- at 224 Fifth Avenue this week. We've been blessed to count up our two biggest revenue days in the four years since we opened and, on top of that, we've been more blessed to meet in person so many people who read, watch or hear our content. From Germany to Estonia to Canada to Mexico to the quartet of podcast listeners who popped in yesterday from a place called North Pole, Alaska, it's been a joy for us to get to know you the right way.
Still open with extended hours Saturday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.
• Alas, I'll be on the Turnpike heading to Philadelphia for a hockey funeral.
THE ASYLUM
DK: Allar vs. Howard (finally) starts attacking issue No. 1
Now that's making the right call.
Sorry. Too easy.
In all seriousness, after Omar Khan unwillingly and unfortunately stole most of the headlines from the opening round of the NFL Draft, almost anyone would've represented an upgrade on Day 2 and, from my perspective, he'd reach well above that.
To see Khan get aggressive in going after another wide receiver following his whiff on USC's Makai Lemon the previous day, to see him trade up to No. 47 overall and add Alabama's Germie Bernard, to see him round out what could be a terrific trifecta alongside DK Metcalf and Mike Pittman ... yeah, I'll take that after only about three years of publicly pining for it.
Bernard's not part of that half-dozen wide receivers among the top 30 or so in this draft, including Lemon, who had all the scouts and analysts wide-eyed. But his solid 6-1 frame, superb hands and potential versatility make him a fit here for now and into the future. Also, for what it's worth, and that can be plenty at his position, he hardly comes across as the dubious character sort.
"They're getting a selfless guy," he'd say on this night via conference call, "a guy who's gonna do everything for the team to have success."
Uh-huh. That.
But then, to see Khan get aggressive in a different way, taking a figurative flyer on a possible, project-type quarterback in Penn State's Drew Allar ... yeah, my public pining on this count pretty much dates back to Ben Roethlisberger and Maurkice Pouncey with the matching sad-faces on the sideline that one night.
A quarterback, my friends. Another quarterback.
Look, I've made no secret of my belief in Allar's potential, and I'll reiterate for those just now eager to learn: He's 6-5, 228, he's got the biggest and best arm of anyone in the class all the way up to No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza out of Indiana, he's got mobility to match the frame and, best of all, as I've seen it, he comes with shortcomings that could be short-lived. Mechanical fare. Footwork. Reading defenses.
An awkwardly large, loud percentage of the Penn State faithful will pan the pick, I can safely predict based on precedent, most of that based on the mythical he-couldn't-win-the-big-games nonsense. But in the same breath, tellingly, they'll also confess that Allar was held back by the Nittany Lions having not a single elite wide receiver in his tenure there and, way above all else, that James Franklin was as awful at coaching games as he was elite at recruiting.
Allar fell from a once-foreseen first-rounder to the third, partly because of what's above, partly because of an ankle injury that shortened his 2025 season to six games.
Oh, I'll take that, too.
And all of this:
The throws aren't all that pristine, of course, but they're almost always effortless in release. That can't be taught. That can't be coached.
Better believe I'll take it, as well, that Tom Arth, the Steelers' quarterbacks coach, apparently acknowledged that Allar's expected to compete with Will Howard for work behind the coming season's starter and, far beyond that, for that once-and-forever far-flung concept of having a franchise quarterback again someday.
"We'll have a plan for that," Arth would say when asked how to manage reps between the two youngsters. "We're fortunate to have a really good room right now."
Nothing should matter more to this management. No more Kenny Pickett anointments. No more Mitch Trubisky experiments. No more Russell Wilson revivals. It'll obviously be one more year for Aaron Rodgers, once he's done stuffing sand between his toes, but that's got to be it.
This'll come at the cost of trading Mason Rudolph away, and I base that mostly on Mike McCarthy's candor earlier in the week in stating he won't carry more than three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. That won't help the 2026 cause. If Rodgers were to go down, it'd almost surely be Howard thrust into starting -- as Rudolph himself was in a similar scenario in 2019 -- and that's a real risk with an existing starter who'll turn 43 by Christmas.
Big whoop, I say. Has to happen. Long overdue. Ridiculously overdue.
It was always going to take multiple candidates to identify the right quarterback. It was always going to take quantity to rival the quality. It was always going to take authentic competition, not manufactured, not staged for Saint Vincent College.
If one or both of Allar and/or Howard emerges, awesome. Keep pushing. Keep prodding into the 2027 calendar, possibly even lowering the priority.
If neither emerges or even progresses to management's satisfaction, then hey, I keep being told that the 2027 draft will be the one, true buncha-quarterbacks gold mine we've all been awaiting for nearly half a decade. Which is when Khan can utilize some of this obscene wealth of draft capital he's amassed without spending any of it. (Even now, through three rounds, he's put all five of his 12 picks into players.)
I love this.
Here we go, as they say. Finally.
DAVE DICELLO
• There's our Downtown, and then there's all the rest.
Dave DiCello, the legendary local photographer and a friend shot that gem just above late Friday night, and it features the giant screen that's being draped across the width of the Wyndham, adorned by colorful images.
Good luck, whoever gets this event next. We don't make it a fair fight.
• Be sure to check all four of Chris Halicke's breakdowns of the Friday picks.
• Another 260,000 on hand, per the NFL, and another league record, this one for Day 2.
• No safety issues of any significance again, either. Rough week for the AM radio disciples, but a joyful one for those of us who care about the heart and soul of our enter region.
• I can't express enough appreciation to everyone who's stopped -- and shopped -- at 224 Fifth Avenue this week. We've been blessed to count up our two biggest revenue days in the four years since we opened and, on top of that, we've been more blessed to meet in person so many people who read, watch or hear our content. From Germany to Estonia to Canada to Mexico to the quartet of podcast listeners who popped in yesterday from a place called North Pole, Alaska, it's been a joy for us to get to know you the right way.
Still open with extended hours Saturday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.
• Alas, I'll be on the Turnpike heading to Philadelphia for a hockey funeral.
• Thanks for reading my football coverage.
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