'Start Milroe' campaign backed by Seahawks legend

Shaun Alexander wouldn't mind seeing Jalen Milroe start as soon as 2025

You may have to forgive Shaun Alexander for being head over heels for an Alabama quarterback. When Alexander last played for the Crimson Tide, it would still be another 15 years before Alabama would finally start to recruit NFL-quality signal callers like Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones, and Bryce Young.

The starting QB during Alexander’s college tenure was the Wikipage-less Andrew Zow. So to him, Jalen Milroe must seem like Josh Allen compared to the days of Brodie Croyle and Greg McElroy in the midst of a 50-year period when Alabama recruited anything but 5-star quarterbacks.

That doesn’t mean that Shaun Alexander is wrong, but he’s riding the tide to a beach that doesn’t have many inhabitants…yet.

In an interview with Kay Adams last week, Alexander made his case for the Seahawks to consider starting Jalen Milroe as a rookie should Sam Darnold fail to live up to the challenge of repeating the success he had last season.

“I think that you just let him grow…But also know that if he has the discipline to be the quarterback -- and we know he has the talent -- and if he can catch on fast enough, you don’t let superstars sit too long because they learn not to be the superstars.”

Just that quote alone could sound like Alexander is simply supporting Milroe — as all Seahawks fans are — and not necesasrily making a case for the team to challenge Darnold’s place as the starter right away. But then Alexander evokes the names of Matt Flynn and Russell Wilson, which could be interpreted as “shots fired”…

“And so we have a fine quarterback we just brought in in Sam Donald. But we’ve seen this before. We did it with a kid from Green Bay that came in, and we drafted Russell Wilson. And so I’m cool. I’m pro-Seattle all the way. So I think if Sam comes out and balls, then we’re great. If Jalen looks like he’s taken the nod, we don’t have to hesitate on that either. Let’s go win.”

The four words that jump out to me?

“We’ve seen this before.”

That sounds like Alexander is saying that we’re seeing a REPEAT of 2012, not that it is just an example of something that could happen. Alexander continued to beat the Russ drum.

“He’s got amazing talent and we saw with Russell before, you know, rookie, he just come in, just be yourself, use your talent and he ends up winning. So we don’t know if Jalen’s going to win, but I just don’t count people out that’s got his character and his look at ball. Like, he knows the game itself, but then he has all these extra tools that could make him really be something special.”

Alexander announced the Milroe pick for Seattle at the draft and he’s been in regular contact with his fellow Alabama alum since the day that the quarterback arrived in Mobile.

Yes, Alexander’s take on the situation does sound like the opinion of an ex-football player (not a scout) wearing crimson-colored glasses:

Jalen Milroe is still the prospect who had some of the worst accuracy of any quarterback draftee in the modern era.

Not only are the odds stacked against Milroe to start this season based on how low he was drafted (92nd) and how much room he has to grow as a passer, but also Darnold isn’t Matt Flynn.

Matt Flynn:

• 7th round pick

• 4 years as Aaron Rodgers’ backup

• 2 career starts and 132 attempts before Seattle

• $10 million guaranteed

Sam Darnold:

• 3rd overall pick

• 73 career starts and 2,356 pass attempts

• $37.5 million guaranteed (more practically, it’s a minimum 2-year deal)

To be benched for Drew Lock or Milroe this year, Darnold would not need to be a disappointment. He’d need to mutiny and sink the ship into the Puget Sound.

On that note, Kirk Cousins signed with the Falcons as a free agent last year and he was a) much more expensive, b) much more experienced, c) much more established and he still managed to play his way out of a job in favor of Michael Penix, Jr.. (Coincidentally, Penix and Milroe had the same head coach in college.)

But even amid that disaster, Cousins started 14 of 17 games. And Penix was a top-10 pick.

Furthermore, there’s been no discussion on either end of the Seahawks spectrum — from the coaching side or Milroe’s side — that denies his need for a lot of time to develop his skills as a quarterback who can run, rather than a runner who can quarterback.

Outside of the nitty-gritty specifics, the former Crimson Tide signal-caller prides himself on his preparation and attention to detail in game planning and self-improvement. Here’s what Milroe said about his need to get better as a passer before the draft:

"Number one, just the amount of detail I pour in to the game when it comes to preparation," Milroe told me in February. "Saturdays, there are is a lot of physical testing for you as a player for sure, but the mental is also a part of the game as well."

"Number two is putting stress on the defense when it comes to the passing game and the run game," Milroe continued. "When it comes to athleticism (I bring a lot to the table), also just playing on-time and giving our guys a chance when it comes to the passing game."

"There's a lot I feel I do that puts pressure on a defense that makes playing the quarterback position so exciting," Milroe said. "I still know there is room to grow and there is a great opportunity ahead with the amount of time that I keep on pouring into the game."

"As long as I am on this path in football, I always want to continue to develop and try to be the best version of myself that I can be," Milroe said. "It is definitely evident what needs to be improved and so for me, it is how I can continue to grind, refine and be the best version of myself for any organization that I am a part of."

Before and since the draft, Milroe has highlighted his need to focus on developing his lower-body mechanics because he was “upper-body dominant” as a passer in college, while obviously also being lower-body dominant as a runner.

And since drafting Milroe, the Seahawks have insisted that they see a future NFL quarterback, not a present day 2.0 of Taysom Hill:

But that is still a future (!) quarterback.

Alexander backing Milroe makes all the sense in the world. His NFL team has now drafted a quarterback from his college team, and he has no allegiances to Sam Darnold, at least not until Week 1. Even if Alexander is overestimating Milroe’s ability to be a “superstar” for Seattle as soon as this year, it shouldn’t hurt to have people try to will that narrative into a reality if it serves as motivation.

Either motivation for Milroe to stay focused on improving his flaws, Darnold to keep his faults at bay, or in an ideal world, both.

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