Cleveland Browns Should Target Drew Allar in 2026 NFL Draft

Last year, the Cleveland Browns surprised everyone and drafted two rookie quarterbacks.

The Browns got a look at both of them in 2025. And neither Dillon Gabriel nor Shedeur Sanders jumped off the page. However, the current expectation is for Sanders to compete with Deshaun Watson to start at quarterback in 2026.

As John Madden’s old adage goes, when you have two quarterbacks, you have none. That’s probably why Browns general manager Andrew Berry continues to keep the door open for the team to draft another quarterback in 2026.

Unless the Browns fall in love with Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, who has a personal relationship with new head coach Todd Monken, the team will likely be looking to the mid-rounds for yet another passer.

But who should the Browns target at quarterback in the middle rounds?

It’s simple. Drew Allar.

By this point, you’ve probably heard about Allar, who started his quarterback journey at Medina High School in Northeast Ohio.

But this isn’t a story about the Browns drafting a hometown hero and making a feel good story.

Even though Allar grew up a diehard Cleveland sports fan, and attended every Browns home game in his family’s season tickets that have been passed down since the 1960s, this is a story about Cleveland’s professional football organization finally choosing a quarterback prospect that fits the division in which they play and the city that represents them.

Allar’s 6-foot-5 frame and big arm looks tailor-made for the AFC North.

Sure, the division has evolved from the days of Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco and Andy Dalton. Lamar Jackson won an MVP with Monken as a mobile quarterback that didn’t fit the typical AFC North prototype.

But Gabriel’s six starts for the Browns proved that Cleveland needs a bigger quarterback. Even Sanders, who is 6-foot-2, was sacked 23 times in seven starts for the Browns as a rookie.

Allar didn’t play quarterback until his freshman year in high school. As a sophomore, Allar had an opportunity to take over the starting job for Medina, and told Browns On SI at the NFL Combine that he realized his NFL dreams could become a reality following that season, which resulted in a playoff loss against St. Edward’s.

Let’s try this clip again.

Former Medina QB Drew Allar started playing quarterback during his freshman year with the Bees. Was his first year as a QB ever.

He told me that he realized he could play in the NFL during his sophomore year during their playoff loss against St. Eds. pic.twitter.com/nmmqYiSgAF
— Nick Pedone (@NickPedone12) February 27, 2026

That’s when Allar started to explode onto the national scene. His first college football offer was from the first Browns jersey he ever owned, former Cleveland quarterback Charlie Frye, who was the QB coach at Central Michigan.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world shut down and football stopped for Allar, who was just hitting another growth spurt and starting to put on some weight and muscle. That’s when he honed in on his craft, working with private QB coach Brad Maendler who transformed Allar into a rotational thrower as opposed to a linear thrower – changing him from a baseball pitcher into a quarterback.

In Ohio high school football circles, Allar was the real deal. He won Ohio Mr. Football as a senior. In the heart of Buckeye country, there was genuine fear that a kid from Cleveland was going to a Big Ten rival and might make life really difficult for Ohio State, who never offered him.

But Allar’s college career at Penn State didn’t go as planned.

As a true freshman, Allar appeared in 10 games, quarterbacking a neutered Nittany Lions offense. As a sophomore, he threw 25 touchdowns compared to just two interceptions, proving an ability to sling it. His junior year, the NFL buzz became serious after throwing for 24 more touchdowns and 3,327 yards, leading the Nittany Lions to the College Football Playoff.

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, the Browns liked Allar ahead of the 2025 pre-draft process. But following his bad showing in Penn State’s playoff loss to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, Allar wanted to return to the Nittany Lions with a chip on his shoulder.

The 2025 Nittany Lions were a wreck from the start, head coach James Franklin was fired and Allar suffered a season-ending ankle injury during the eighth game of the year.

Now, Allar is healthy and finds himself fighting for an opportunity to prove himself as the real deal once again. And the Browns are a team that have more of an opportunity for a quarterback to prove themselves than they might even realize.

Sanders showed plenty of flashes as a rookie, but threw more interceptions than he did touchdown passes and was sacked over 20 times in just seven starts. Watson hasn’t been good since Allar was playing high school football. After three serious injuries, there’s no reason to believe that Watson will ever return to an elite level quarterback ever again.

At No. 94 overall in last year’s class, the Browns overdrafted Gabriel, a quarterback who is smart, but has no tangible NFL traits. In six starts for the Browns as a rookie, there were growing doubts that the undersized left-handed QB could even sustain a career as a backup.

So the team should take a flier on Allar, the quarterback they were fascinated with last year. He has a relationship with new Browns quarterback coach Mike Bajakian, who tried recruiting him out of Medina to play at Northwestern. The Browns met with Allar at the NFL Combine, and the 22 year-old thought that it went really well.

Even though his college tape shows inconsistencies in a Penn State offense that never leaned into his strengths, the 6-foot-5, 228 pound quarterback has the raw traits that would make for an exciting lottery ticket.

If Monken could develop either him or Sanders into a long-term solution at quarterback, the team could be off to the races in 2027. If not? There’s not much of an investment there. The team would be able to cut ties with Watson, Allar, and Sanders if they wanted to and usher in a premium quarterback in the first-round of the 2027 draft.

But Browns fans are sick of waiting… and waiting… and waiting.

If they have to wait one more year, give them a local kid who has plenty of upside and wants to play in Cleveland.

“I think any team or any opportunity that I have to play in the NFL would be a dream come true,” Allar said. “That one would be really cool and surreal just because I grew up going to Browns games and grew up a Browns fan, but any opportunity that I have is one that I won’t take for granted.”

The Browns should be that opportunity. At the very least, he wouldn’t take it for granted.

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