MOBILE, Ala. — Watching former Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe perform at the Senior Bowl this week may be the ultimate Rorschach test for NFL executives and evaluators.
Do you fall in love with his big arm and athleticism that can make something out of nothing? Or are you scared off by his intermediate passing deficiencies and questions around whether he can process the game fast enough at the next level?
Milroe could be the most polarizing prospect in this year’s NFL Draft, the kind of player that can make a general manager look like a genius or have to look for a new job, especially if he drafts him in the first round. Some analysts, including CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso, think Milroe is indeed a Round 1 pick.
The full Milroe experience, the one Alabama fans know all too well, has been on display in Mobile this week. He’s made big plays with his arm but also poor decisions like this interception on Wednesday.
Milroe throws a beautiful deep ball but his intermediate passes seem to have too much speed on them. In his first few days in Mobile, it looked like he was having trouble keeping up with the speed of what was happening in front of him. There were rumblings that he hadn’t aced some of his meetings with NFL teams this week, either.
“He’s not had the best week this week,” The Ringer’s Todd McShay said on his podcast. “Everything he’s still developing is what has been featured this week so, of course, it’s not going to be his shining moment the first two days of practice.”
McShay thought Milroe looked better on Thursday and that was the general consensus of media and NFL folks inside Hancock Whitney Stadium. But it still wasn’t a standout performance. During one stretch of red zone offense, he went 0-for-3 on fade passes, almost was picked off on a bad throw attempt to former teammate CJ Dippre and was late on a few throws that went incomplete.
Of course a quarterback struggling in Senior Bowl practices doesn’t prevent him from potentially being drafted highly and/or having success in the NFL. It’s a tough situation to walk into with players you’ve mostly never played with before plus new coaches and verbiage. There are players who can excel in that scenario — Ole Miss‘ Jaxson Dart looked like the best QB Thursday and should see his draft stock rise coming out of Mobile — while others like Milroe may fare better in other environments. Milroe will almost assuredly have a terrific 40-yard dash time at the NFL Combine and have teams drooling over his athleticism, as they did over the inconsistent Anthony Richardson out of Florida two years ago.
With Milroe, it comes down to what you want to focus on. Is it the performances against Georgia and LSU where he looked terrific? Or is it against Oklahoma and Michigan where he looked lost? Do you like that he’s a terrific runner or are you concerned he leans on it too much and it might not be sustainable in the NFL? How worried are you that his hand size (smaller than 8 3/4) plays a role in his accuracy and fumble issues (24 in 27 starts)? Is he the next Jalen Hurts — or Malik Willis?
When summing up his performance this week, Milroe said the best thing he did this was learn from the NFL coaches. He was appreciative of the opportunity. He said it’s been an “introduction to what’s ahead” and plans to work on his footwork, timing and preparation coming out of the experience.
“I’m going to pour everything I can to be the best version of myself and never get complacent,” Milroe said. “I learn so much from my losses, more than my wins, so my losses are when I’m at my best. I just to improve, try to grind and try to compete.”
With that mindset, there will be plenty for Milroe to learn from his Senior Bowl experience. His pro day throwing performance in Tuscaloosa with familiar faces will be even more critical after his perceived passing issues this week. His processing speed will be put to the test in visits with NFL teams. There are multiple opportunities for him to improve his stock before April’s NFL Draft though he could be behind Dart, Miami‘s Cam Ward and Colorado‘s Shedeur Sanders in the QB rankings now.
This week in Mobile was just the start of the draft process for Milroe but emblematic of what the next few months could be. Get ready for him to become perhaps the most debated prospect because of what he evokes. There are some who believe he could be a top-five pick. There are others who think he should be drafted on Day 2 or Day 3.
With Milroe, what you see — and believe he can be — is in the eye of the beholder.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
