Is Jalen Milroe a liability?

The Seahawks can't put the ball in Milroe's hands yet

They say you should start every article with a wow moment, so here’s one: Jalen Milroe’s high school’s football stadium cost $70 million to build.

Seating over 12,000 people, Legacy Stadium in Katy, Texas is the second-most expensive high school stadium in the country. When asked about the price tag, the district’s Superintendent simply said, “I don’t think the cost was anything that (the community) really looked into.”

That’s just football where Milroe was raised.

Going from Tompkins High to playing quarterback at Alabama, the NFL preseason should not have been “too big” for a player like Milroe, at least compared to other rookies. And I think it would be unfair to say that it was or that Milroe was overwhelmed by either the speed of the game on the field or the spotlight off of it. He’s fast and he’s used to the attention.

No, the problems for Milroe are more simpler than that:

Jalen Milroe could not develop his skills as a passer and as a quarterback fast enough to be ready for an important job with the Seahawks by Week 1, nor should anyone have expected him to when he was drafted.

Milroe hasn’t done anything wrong. He just hasn’t fixed what has always been wrong. He’s an inaccurate thrower who needs to do a better job of protecting the football. Milroe’s three fumbles against the Packers on Saturday were a reflection of the turnover issues, but he was due for some costly mistakes given how he had played in the previous two games as well.

Jalen Milroe 2025 preseason stats: 22/39, 56.4%, 255 yards, 6.5 Y/A, 1 TD, 6 sacks, 35 yards lost on sacks, 3 fumbles, 15 carries, 87 yards, 5.8 Y/C

I did not take a lot of time this summer to review Milroe’s college career and the numbers from his final season at Alabama are even worse than I expected. Especially as a passer and expecially against any competition that has at least a fighting chance against the Crimson Tide. Here is a gamelog of his raw passing stats in 2024:

(The totals at the bottom are his career stats, but Milroe’s final totals as a senior were 16 TD/11 INT, while completion rate and Y/A were about the same as his career averages.)

We can see that Alabama’s non-conference schedule was absolutely not match for them in any capacity, winning those games by an average of score of 51-8.

• In those 4 non-conf games, Milroe had 10 touchdowns/0 interceptions.

• In the 9 other games, Milroe had 6 TD/11 interceptions

I’m not pointing this out to take Milroe down a peg or criticize him. These are just the facts and it was easier to ignore how far he has to go as a passer to become NFL-ready before Milroe started playing in games in front of fans on TV and at NFL stadiums that could one day rival his high school digs!

Let’s not forget that once sports radio had a chance to interview Mike Macdonald about the quarterback room after the draft, they didn’t hesitate to shoot their shots:

So while some writers or social media moguls spin that any criticism of a quarterback is “negativity”, the only people who are actually being fair to Jalen Milroe are the ones who say he doesn’t seem ready.

You won’t see me say that Milroe has done anything wrong.

You won’t see me say that Milroe has taken a step back.

You won’t see me say that Milroe is bad at football.

Milroe looks like the exact quarterback he was expected to be going into the draft…a rare combination of athleticism and arm strength who has a lot of work to do as a passer:

Milroe is an explosive athlete who is very capable outside the pocket, but he lacks accuracy, touch and decision-making when he’s inside the pocket. A lack of anticipation and timing leads to interceptions and contested throws to intermediate areas of the field. He has an NFL arm, but he might need to fine-tune his footwork and delivery to improve accuracy on all three levels.

And a fumbling issue that was as apparent on Saturday as it was in college:

Milroe accounted for 3 turnovers in each of his final 3 college games. Milroe’s ball-security issues are alarming. He fumbled 24 times in his 2 seasons as a starter, and while his 67 missed tackles forced in that stretch will have some NFL folks salivating because of the increased emphasis on the quarterback run game, it’s also worth remembering that he was sacked 67 times. His 200 scramble yards in 2024 only ranked No. 50 among FBS quarterbacks, and it was barely good enough to crack the top 10 in the SEC.

In addition, Milroe ranked 77th in the country in completion rate when under pressure (43.5%), which he figures to be in a lot because defensive coordinators are really good at taking away his first read. Milroe’s nine interceptions when he wasn’t under pressure were the most in college football.

It is actually more unfair to make excuses for Milroe’s poor play than it is to say that he doesn’t look ready for the league. The reality check should only motivate him to work harder.

The Seahawks did not draft Milroe in the third round to compete with Sam Darnold or to challenge Drew Lock as the backup, neither long-term or as the active option on gamedays*. Seattle drafted Milroe as a lottery ticket who could payoff long-term if the coaching staff is able to raise the level of his passing skills and quarterback IQ just high enough to be acceptable when combined with his gifts as a runner.

*An emergency third QB can only be put into a game if both active quarterbacks are physically incapable of playing, so only activating Milroe on gameday could be the same as not having a backup QB at all

Maybe that will happen in a shorter amount of time than skeptics expect. Maybe it will take longer than the believers believe. Maybe Milroe will never be that good. The answer to that question is better left where it belongs:

The future Jalen Milroe.

Today’s Milroe would be a liability in the regular season, perhaps not just as a quarterback but also as a runner; Can he hold onto the ball if the player tackling him is Nick Bosa or Fred Warner instead of guys who are about to get some very bad news on Tuesday? If the Seahawks lose to the 49ers in Week 1, that loss could end up being Macdonald’s greatest regret of the season.

It’s not that playing on Sundays is too big for Milroe. It’s that it probably isn’t too big and yet he’s still going to be a liability with the football until we know for sure that Jalen Milroe proves to be his own “wow moment”.

I asked Seahawks fans to share their reactions to Seattle’s final preseason game on Saturday. Here is what you said and well, it was almost all about the quarterback:

PNWRider: I am still not sold on Milroe. We will see next year but right now he looks a long way to go when compared to other draftees ( such as Dart that I wanted bad )

Cavmax: My fantasized Russell Wilson comp had me chuckling the whole game. Reality check! Russ was pretty special and Jalen could be...in time. My oh my, I'm back to earth now heh heh

Charlie Gage: It would be interesting to see Milroe playing behind the ones but that's not going to happen for a while.

Ray: So much for the Drew Lock emergency QB silliness.

By the way, if you want to compare the eye test of Milroe today to Milroe’s best season of college football, here are some “every Milroe pass/run” games I found from 2023:

There’s a reason Milroe barely went inside the top-100 — the film — and a reason that he was drafted at all in spite of it — the athleticism. It’s a bet that could go either way for the Seahawks.

Chris: I think they should have played Drew Lock at least in the second half

Bob Johnston: I don't think that Jalen was processing as quickly as he needed to be because most of his throws seemed to be coming out a hair late. Just my impression. My enthusiasm for Jalen has not ebbed at all though because I think he'll get the time he needs to iron things out. Maybe that never happens but he's going to get every opportunity.

JIMMY JOHNSON: I see MacDonald INVESTING in our young QB, giving him the full experience spending a week preparing to play a game. A thousand little things were learned. His scrambling skills are far from optimal, taking sacks rather than tossing the ball out of bounds without taking a flag. As we witnessed, it can be overwhelming.

Chuck Turtleman: Milroe looked terrible. But there were guys blocking for him whose names I didn't even remember from the depth chart. Still, he runs with the ball away from his body and that doesn't even cut it in high school ball. His future doesn't look to be any time soon.

PhilippRttr: Call me crazy, but I think games like these are exactly what a prospect like Milroe need, if you have an Organization that really wants to develop you. An intelligent person like him should use it as motivation to never stop working on his flaws. I couldn't care less about the score, fumbles.

Feels like a consensus has developed that Jalen Milroe is a very cool prospect to have under contract for four years, plenty of time for the Seahawks to find out how good he can become in the NFL before making any hard decisions, which is also the player he was four months ago at the draft. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

What were some non-Milroe takes on Saturday?

JIMMY JOHNSON: I'm seeing our non-starters building an identity as "The Support Squad". They all now know what and where the "edges" are that they need to chase. That is solid Coaching. I am also pleased I will no longer find myself sitting through a long infomercial interrupted by football coverage. Never did hear what/who the penalty was that negated our first TD, nor the Bobo collision and outcomes of the injuries suffered. Kudos for telling us here at Seaside Joe. The production was sad. I trust the Front Office will make corrections, like hiring Ken Arthur to run it next year.

I just hope that the NFL will not let that godawful 5-minute break for virtual measurements continue into the regular season. That’s over, right?

Chuck Turtleman: I hate injuries in a preseason game. Even to players who were never going to make the 53 anyway, because that's a terrible way to end your professional career. And watching this was a terrible way to spend my Sunday. Sorry to be negative, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. I wanted us to just end it early.

I would go as far as to say that teams should not be forced to play preseason games. That’s probably not an option due to the $$$, but similar how teams get to pick and choose if they want to hold joint practices or scrimmage games, shouldn’t everything that goes into a season be a case-by-case decision? If some teams want to elect to only have 2 preseason games instead of 3, I think that should be allowed.

Not only do we get injuries, but we get so many games where one or both teams clearly do not care and don’t want to be there. That’s a recipe for disaster. The downside to that is that there are players trying to put themselves on film to get more opportunities in the future…Here’s what Jared Ivey was able to do because the Seahawks played:

My proposal here probably isn’t perfect but Saturday’s game felt totally unnecessary, as did many others around the NFL in the preseason.

Bill Lord: Our line play on both sides of the ball was embarrassingly inferior.

In the sense of “our” being players in Seahawks uniforms, yes. But in many cases we are never going to hear these names again:

Mike A.: Pre season - a necessary evil. Pick 2nd string, depth guys, don't get 1st string and rotational guys hurt. One thing remains constant, the O line. As usual, Hawks go into 2025 with a serviceable left tackle and four question marks. Good luck Sammy baby! It's cool 1st 2 games are SF & pissburg - litmus tests!

I might even be feeling better about Grey Zabel and Abe Lucas than I am about Charles Cross, but largely because Cross missed so much training camp. I know what you mean about question marks though.

Chris H: Happy for Cody White. Dude works hard, and I think he won't make the 53 again this year, so the good vibes might not last for long.

Becoming a regular starting receiver in the NFL is like making a movie: You’ll often hear people in Hollywood say that making a movie is basically “impossible” because there are so many checks and balances and bars to cross before an idea actually makes it to the big screen. And yet we know that hundreds of movies get made every year.

But that must be out of many thousands of legitimate projects that thought they were good enough to become movies.

Well, it seems just as hard to become an NFL receiver even when you’re one of the best current receivers in the world. Cody White might be the 100th best wide receiver in the entire world right now, but that’s just not good enough to make a team when you weren’t drafted and you’re already 26. Even if White made the 53, he’d need multiple other receivers to go down before he could go up.

Somehow some receivers manage to break through the wall and become consistently-wanted players on a 53, but it must seem impossible to most.

Paul Johnson: I picked them to win 11 games way back when SSJ asked us for predictions, I’ll stand by that with the caveat that everything goes right,… but when has everything gone right for 4 months in my life. I’m not throwing in the towel for the season before they play any regular season games but I think for many of us this was a reminder that the rest of this season will be real big league football. I’m still optimistic, but cautiously optimistic.

The game meant absolutely nothing to me, except to say that I hope Jake Bobo’s concussion isn’t serious.

PNWRider: We do need a salad offensive guard or two as back ups.

Lettuce pray that they sign Dalton Risner then.

Seaside Joe 2365