NFL Draft QB Jalen Milroe’s development? [April 7: Saints worked out Jalen Milroe] [Seahawks draft Milroe in 3rd round, pick #92] (5 Viewers)

[St. Widge]

I feel like Milroe is a lot like RG3 except RG3 was a batter passer at this point in their careers. IMO, Milroe’s game is based off his legs and less on his ability to read defenses and progress through his receivers. If something were to happen to his legs, knees, ankle, etc; I feel like his career would be just like RG3, done. To me that’s the scary part about running QB’s is they tend to lean/focus their game to their leg ability and not their mental ability, and it hurts them in the long run. Then again he may never get hurt and have a similar career to Jackson, Newton, Vick, etc.

The thing is that with all the spread, RPO, and read options offenses that are run in college these days you have the same questions about reading defenses and progressing through receivers with every QB that comes out. The same can certainly be said about Cam Ward, Dart, and several other QBs in this draft. So, it's always going to be about projection and how hard you think the player will work outside of the very few that played in a pro-style offense.

Milroe has a long way to go to become even a solid pocket passer in an NFL passing attack. But, I do think he has the work ethic to get there. And until he does, you can incorporate a lot of spread concepts, RPOs, and Read Options to make him feel more comfortable while you work on making him better in the pocket.

I don't know if he's ever going to get there and he's a big risk/big reward guy. But, I'd personally take a shot with him at 40 or trading up in the lower first. He would need to sit for a year and then be brought along slowly, but he has some skills that can help you win games in the meantime.

But, all that is contingent on if Kellen Moore thinks he can work with him to make him a good enough pocket passer that in combination with his other skills will make him a great QB.

 

[David Robbins]

A lot of talk lately about Jaxson Dart but I wanted to get a feel for the boards opinion on Jalen Milroe from Alabama in terms of being picked at say 40(ADP on nfldraftbuzz is around 47) so he’d be right in that range. He could possibly drop to 71 but that might be a bit risky.

The more I read about him and more I watch I am admittedly more intrigued and curious about him.

Draft scouting report is(per nfldraftbuzz):





Do you guys think Moore would take a chance on him due to his physical attributes and fit in system?


He throws a beauty of a deep ball and we have guys who can take advantage already.

Highlights

The deep ball is all he’s good at. He has no anticipation and no touch

 

[No2DC]

This is starting to sound like an old school Al Davis pick. I can't imagine spending a #1 on a project

 

[Patman255]

Has there ever been a pro QB prospect that had as suspect the ability to be an NFL passer but was an incredible athlete who overcame that and developed as a better passer?

How does Milroe's passing game prospects compare to Lamar's?

 

[Saint Spud]

Has there ever been a pro QB prospect that had as suspect the ability to be an NFL passer but was an incredible athlete who overcame that and developed as a better passer?

How does Milroe's passing game prospects compare to Lamar's?

Josh Allen

 

[WhoDat?DrewDat]

We knew he would run well... It's all the other stuff that makes him a day 2 or 3 pick.... If he's ever a NFL starter.... It's with 2 to 3 years of development under a very good NFL staff.

Pretty much this. We knew he was an athlete. It's everything else that needs work.

He does however have a ridiculous ceiling IF (and that's a big IF) he can figure everything else out.

Hurts had similar questions coming out and he managed to figure it out. Milroe has a much higher ceiling albeit lower floor.

 

[St. Geezy]

Josh Allen

Incredible example. Very good type comp.

Not saying Milroe is Allen, just saying I agree that he’s a good example of someone that was suspect in college but had the elite athletic tools to build around and develop, and he became a much better passer at the NFL level than he was in college.

 

[Trench Warfare]

Yeah I don’t do the player comp bc every player is his own self. I will only compare where players are in a timeline. Like Milroe, at this time going into the draft, the things he needs to work on, were roughly the same as Hurts. Hurts was a little further along than Milroe, but not by much. Milroe has the ability to be an absolute force in the NFL. He is sitting on an absolute gold mine, if he puts in the work. Which, I have no doubts that he will bc I will pound the desk, about how much I adore his parents, and what they represent, and what they demand of their son. He is very close to his parents and he does listen to them. Very structured and I also believe that Milroe would indeed work his butt off for his parents, coaches, teammates, the city, and himself. Kinda makes me want to puke talking about a former Bama player, but he’s not at Bama anymore, so I can salivate at him as a draft prospect. His 4.3 40 will only draw defenses in and keep them honest. If he can learn the intricacies of the short and intermediate passing game, while learning to trust his receivers (much like Hurts eventually did), then this dude has SuperStar written all over him. I’m not even worried about him adjusting to the speed of the game bc if he plays his cards right, then the game will have to adjust to the speed of him. Much like Lamar and Vick giving defenses fits and making OCs stay up all week to prepare for these dudes.

My comment about AR, is that guy was so far behind many QBs in recent years, that he was only drafted soley on measurables. Not much else and it is definitely showing. Plus, he didn’t play much in college and now this dufus is barely staying healthy. In game, he looks completely lost on passing plays. Like he’s either not retaining the information or he doesn’t put in the extra work. He’s so far behind the with his progress. So based on athletic ability, which AR and Milroe both have, it just looks like Milroe puts in the work vs AR who didn’t look like he did/does. Just my $.02

First, Milroe is the QB that I did not want going into this draft.

However, I can envision an offense built around him. He has talent, athletic ability and a superpower that can't be taught.

We have the OC as HC who built an offense around a QB who is closer to a RB than a pocket passer. That QB's QB Coach is now our OC. If there is a staff that would get the most out of Milroe, it would be CKM and his offensive staff.

Milroe would need receiver options that we currently don't have on the roster. To mitigate some of his weaknesses in pass accuracy, we need guys with a huge catch radius and speed to pull the defense back.

We'd also have to make the line a bunch of maulers, we have 3 maybe 4 with Radunz now and Ruiz is not a mauler, but Fuaga, Penning and McCoy are.

I would also grab another RB. A backfield with AK (Jeanty, Hampton or Johnson) with Milroe at QB is disgusting.

At WR, I might put JJ out at X as a Big X. I would draft Higgins, Thornton or Neyor to play a Big Z with huge catch radius. Hell, I might draft 2 of them like Thornton and Neyor. Thornton at 6'4" 205lbs and runs a 4.3, that's a nasty Big Z. Means would be a menace in the middle of the field. Shaheed turns into an offensive weapon and Cooks is a speed/tactician. I might trade Olave for draft capital since Milroe's inaccuracy might get him killed on the field.

I'd draft one of these Big/Long TE who can go across the middle and up the seams. Fidone out of Nebraska as a project.

The goal would be to create space and mismatches for Milroe and if the guys are covered, let him run.

I'm beginning to think drafting Milroe is a no-lose scenario. At worst, he's an offensive weapon and at best, sky is the limit.

Rattler at QB with Milroe at RB running the option, Rattler pitches it to Milroe and he throws a bomb to Shaheed or Thornton over the top b/c everyone bit on Milroe with the ball in his hands. The play designs are endless.

 

[No2DC]

I was curious about the Lamar and Josh comparison. By last year, Milroe had a higher completion percentage than both.
Lamar:

Season	Team	Conf	Class	piece of work	G	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	TD%	Int	Int%	Y/A	AY/A	Y/C	Y/G	Rate	Awards
2015*	Louisville	ACC	FR	QB	12	135	247	54.7	1840	12	4.9	8	3.2	7.4	6.96	13.6	153.3	126.8
2016*	Louisville	ACC	SO	QB	13	230	409	56.2	3543	30	7.3	9	2.2	8.7	9.14	15.4	272.5	148.8	H-1,Maxwell,AA,Camp
2017*	Louisville	ACC	JR	QB	13	254	430	59.1	3660	27	6.3	10	2.3	8.5	8.72	14.4	281.5	146.6	H-3
Career		38	619	1086	57.0	9043	69	6.4	27	2.5	8.3	8.48	14.6	238.0	142.9

Josh

Year	games	completions	attempts	comp. %	Yards	Y/A	TD	int	rating
2015	2	4	6	66.7	51	8.5	0	0	138.1
2016	14	209	373	56.0	3,203	8.6	28	15	144.9
2017	11	152	270	56.3	1,812	6.7	16	6	127.8
Career	27	365	649	56.2	5,066	7.8	44	21
Career Stats​ See All Stats 2024 2023 2022 2021 CMP ATT CMP% YDS AVG TD INT LNG RTG 205 319 64.3 2,844 8.9 16 11 84 148.8 187 284 65.8 2,834 10.0 23 6 79 172.2 31 53 58.5 297 5.6 5 3 35 125.4 3 7 42.9 41 5.9 1 0 24 139.2

Milroe is last and he never had a great year like Josh and Lamar in terms of TDs.

 

[Rexman100]

If you look at the team from afar, what do you see that made it special and unique? We all know “unique” is good and hard to defend due to less examples to study. We see a solid play action offense with the unique ability to call powerful QB zone reads and RPOs. I’m sure that’s what KM was seeing from Philly. And I’m sure he’ll want to put the pieces together to sustain that unique greatness. Dc4 and eventually Rattler can man QB1. And Milroe at 40 can man QB1.5. A detractor may say, Milroe isn’t TH. Milroe is a better runner than TH. Milroe being in the game offers the same threat % to throw the ball. We’d have to train Milroe to catch the ball as a WR and play the TE role. I think this could be done.

 

[SonOfNOLA]

 

[Patman255]

I also think Milroe has a very good shot at being the third QB taken in the draft. His raw physical talents make his ceiling near-infinite, which is the kind of players that coaches love to reach for. I wouldn't be shocked to see him sneak into the first round. In fact, if the Saints don't go QB at pick 9, I could see us in the discussion of moving from pick 40 up to try and get him day 1.

Milroe has an absolute cannon of an arm and throws a very accurate deep ball. He's the best athlete at the QB position in this draft class, not just with speed but also size and power. He's also very intelligent, finished college in 3 years, graduated toss custard Laude (insert jokes about getting a degree from Alabama here), has a Master's degree, and won the academic Heisman.

He's got all the things that you can't coach in terms of sheer talent. His issues are his mechanics (he wastes a lot of time after taking the shotgun snap before he gets into his drop; it's a leg placement thing he can learn) which is probably contributing to his placement issues on some short and intermediate passes. Teams will convince themselves that they can coach this out of him with a year or two of development before he starts.

 

[St. Geezy]

Feels like a possible classic case of “Media catching up to what the teams actually have been knowing as the draft approaches.”

 

[stvol]

He was the worst QB at the Senior Bowl