Fans getting taste of the Jalen Mil-show

The Seahawks drafted a QB finally, but are our expectations too high for Jalen Milroe?

By drafting Jalen Milroe, the Seahawks gave fans a gift that many of us didn’t know we needed: The perspective of what it’s like to have your team’s fourth pick — the 92nd pick overall — also immediately become the most beloved, anticipated, and cherished rookie on the roster.

Potentially the most anticipated player on the entire Seahawks roster.

Because Seattle has so rarely taken a quarterback at any point in the draft, let alone before day three, let alone the best athlete at the position, the point of view that there could be a player who has maybe a (guesstimate) 15% chance of becoming a starter to also be the one getting the headlines, dominating social media posts and YouTube videos about the Seahawks, and eventually being the sole reason to watch the second half of preseason games, is a perspective that we could easily forget in Seattle:

Quarterbacks are the most important players in the NFL, but also the most overrated.

Barely a month into his NFL career, Milroe is already one of the most popular and intriguing players on the Seahawks, perhaps even gaining steam over $100 million starter Sam Darnold. If Seattle had not drafted Milroe, imagine how much more attention would be on Darnold right now. He’s getting some for sure — mostly negative, usually skeptical — but were Darnold the only new QB on the roster then he would easily be the Seahawks’ main character.

Instead, the media and the fans seem more interested in what Milroe has to offer because he’s:

• Young (Turns 23 in December)

• Athletic (99th percentile speed for a QB)

• Got a strong arm

• On a cheap third round rookie contract through 2028

• Charismatic

• YET TO FAIL

That last point is perhaps most important because while Darnold has disappointed fans on both coasts and the middle of the country, Milroe is a 4.37 ball of possibilities. Until Milroe plays in games for the Seahawks and stinks, our minds are allowed to imagine only the good outcomes.

And that’s mostly what I’m seeing as far as analysis goes for Seattle’s rookie quarterback that every team in the league passed on in the draft at least once (even the Seahawks passed on him three times):

Ultra-optimistic “What if?” outlooks that center around the phrase that I hate more than any other in sports when it comes to prospects:

“He just needs time.”

Nobody ever “JUST” needs time. This implies that Jalen Milroe could sit out the next two years and show up in a game in 2027 and be dominant because hey, he had time, right? He needs a lot more than time.

Milroe essentially needs to rehabilitate his entire throwing motion, footwork, lower-body mechanics, decision-making, and then hope that the end result is a quarterback who isn’t the least accurate passer in the pros.

Maybe that will happen.

The first player who comes to mind because he started from scratch and risked everything to refine his form is NBA player Steph Curry. There’s probably a world in which Curry would have been an acceptable NBA player on the path that he was headed down already, but Curry spent a summer changing his mechanics and became “the greatest shooter in history” according to many.

Curry said that was the most difficult summer of his life, but the persistence to keep going despite the frustration is the reason that we all know who Steph Curry is even if we stopped following the NBA after the Sonics left. (As is my experience.)

Milroe could become a good NFL starter but he doesn’t just need time. He needs persistence, a strong mental capacity for dealing with (many) failures, the will to put in twice as many hours as his peers, and more than anything else Milroe has to get lucky.

One former college QB and teammate of Sam Darnold at USC who believes that Milroe could be “the most electric player in the NFL” and potentially a future star with time is Max Browne. On his YouTube channel last week, Browne posted 3 plays that would make sense for Klint Kubiak to utilize immediately in the “Jalen Milroe package” as Seattle’s version of a Taysom Hill weapon this year:

The 3 plays that Browne believes the Seahawks could use Milroe — using examples of Hill with the Saints (under Kubiak) and Milroe at Alabama — in right now:

3rd down QB draw

Off-tackle and Zone Read packages

Zone Read Wrinkle with Lead Blocker

In the zone read w/lead blocker example, Alabama was able to use Milroe as a running back before the ball was even snapped. Essentially, the running back becomes a lead blocker/fullback and Milroe is always meant to follow the running back for a run play as opposed to traditional zone read in which the RB and QB go in opposite directions and either of them could get the ball depending on the decision of the unblocked edge player.

The Seahawks might instead use the running back (Zach Charbonnet or Robbie Ouzts I assume) to block that edge player and let Milroe use his speed when every other offensive player has a hat on a hat.

In another Milroe film study posted this weekend (as I said before, get used to seeing Jalen Milroe everywhere, even if he doesn’t play), the Sea Hawkers Podcast broke down additional film of Milroe at Alabama:

There’s a lot of positivity about what could happen with Milroe in the future if all the good attributes stay good and all the bad attributes get better, which is understandable at this stage when he’s little more than a string of numbers (mostly athletic testing numbers) on a page and not someone who has had a single bad game in the NFL yet because it’s June 1.

But the people who will still be in Milroe’s corner after he goes 5-of-15 in a preseason game with 2 interceptions are more likely to be the fans who expected he’d have days like that all along. Jalen Milroe is a third round pick, 92nd overall.

Most wins by QBs in the last 25 years who were drafted between 3rd-7th rounds:

• Tom Brady

• Russell Wilson

• Kirk Cousins

• Dak Prescott

• Ryan Fitzpatrick

• Matt Hasselbeck

• Matt Schaub

• Kyle Orton

• David Garrard

• Matt Cassel

I went with wins not because it is represented of quality by that single player, but because it is representative of TIME. To win as many games as Brady, Wilson, or Cousins, you have to have earned the trust of a franchise many, many times over. So when you look at that list and you see that out of many dozens of QBs drafted after the second round that Cousins is third, Fitzpatrick is fifth, and Garrard made the top-10, that should emphasize just how rare it is to find a quarterback after the first round who is worth all of that…TIME.

But as Browne notes, Milroe’s value could go beyond being a quarterback and the Seahawks could take advantage of his unique skillset immediately. The other question that Browne raises related to that though is, “How will Darnold handle the pressure to be better if Milroe has success during his tiny sips of football?”

The fans who accept that Milroe is a longshot are also the ones who will need to help keep the media narratives level-headed if he gets a few plays per game and has some success by achieving first downs and scoring points in critical moments.

A third down QB draw play and a zone read wrinkle that goes for 25 yards are much different than running an offense for 60 plays during an entire game plan.

Browne calls it “The Attitude Obstacle” and uses his split time with Darnold at USC as an example of how hard it can be to be a team’s starter but know that half of the fanbase wants you to be replaced by the backup.

It’s not even training camp yet and we’re already seeing it.

Jalen Milroe is the most intriguing player on the Seahawks roster. But to become a good starter, he will need more than just time.

“Tory Horton should step in and be the WR3 right away”

PFF’s Sam Monson explains why he sees Horton as an immediate starter:

“The pathway is so clear…he fits so well into the offense that they have right now…the missing skillset is the one that Horton brings to the table, so I think Horton should step in right away and be that number three receiver. I know Marquez Valdes-Scantling is there as well, but if Horton shows any signs of life in training camp then he should take that role from MVS and immediately take that WR3 role.”

Just wanted to also throw this quote in here about Horton that I heard on Sunday. What do you think: Could Tory Horton be the WR3 already?

Seaside Joe 2281