Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama is the 2025 NFL Draft’s biggest wild card

Alabama QB Jalen Milroe is one of the most captivating prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft. After stepping out from under Bryce Young’s shadow in 2023, the Crimson Tide signal caller wowed fans and NFL Draft evaluators with athleticism that had his former coach Nick Saban marveling at him.

After being benched in 2023 after the USF game, Milroe came back with a vengeance, finishing the season in a flourish that combined an SEC Championship victory with one of the most impressive throws I’ve ever seen in the 2023 Iron Bowl against Auburn.

2024 was supposed to be another continued year of growth, but the season was filled with highs and lows. For every monster game he had against teams like Georgia in 2024, there were games like his final one against Michigan that just leave you wanting more from him. Now, he enters the NFL Draft as the biggest example of the Peter Griffin mystery box meme. Jalen Milroe could be anything — he could even be a superstar QB! But what does he bring to the table and what does he have to improve on as a passer to reach that ceiling?

For one, when Milroe gets to the NFL, he’ll immediately be one of the best, if not the best athlete at the QB spot. He ran a 4.37 40-yard dash at the Alabama pro day at 6’1 and 216 pounds, which is super impressive for anyone at that size, let alone a QB. Jalen Milroe isn’t just a math-changing runner; he’s a field-tilting one. His vision and burst as a runner are next-level, and an NFL offense can design run game packages for him in the red zone immediately in his first year to try and get some explosiveness on the field. Alabama loved sending him behind RB Jam Miller in some pretty dope designed-run game looks, and Milroe was able to be explosive behind that.

Watch one of his four (!) touchdown runs against LSU right here. He’s following behind Miller, and most QBs are far too impatient to let this run develop. But watch Milroe keep the cornerback (14) set up to the outside, then get vertical. The safety is in a poor spot, and Milroe makes him pay by blasting through the lane where the safety should be and into the end zone.

Not only is he a runner with good vision and burst, he can force missed tackles as well. He had a 14.3% Broken Tackle and Missed Tackle Rate as a runner, but that’s largely due to the fact that he ran the ball so darn much. His explosiveness in short areas combined with his lower body leg drive make him a difficult guy to tackle in any scenario, not just the designed run game. Just ask Auburn, who looked like they were trying to tackle a man made out of rubber like they’re CP9 in One Piece.

Auburn gets a free runner on a blitz against Alabama’s QB draw, almost a death knell for most designed QB run plays. Milroe freezes this runner and turns it into a 9-yard gain, just off pure athleticism.

Now, I bet you’re probably asking “well what about his ability as a passer?” I’m here to tell you … that it’s still coming along. However, there are instances where his passing potential shines through, especially throwing downfield and off play action. His On-Target Rate of 87.5% off play action (excluding RPOs) is a big jump from his 69.3% On-Target Rate without play action or RPO usage. When you look at his passing off play action, his feet are much cleaner and he snaps the ball out to his targets a lot quicker. Yes, this over route is open, but look at Milroe’s feet and passing mechanics using play action. Much, much tighter and efficient.

Off play action, he can also show off the arm talent that I would describe as a “hose”. The ball placement and accuracy comes and goes, but being able to hit this out-route from the field is some pure arm talent, man. I can definitely see a team talking themselves into this.

Something else teams will talk themselves into is the deep ball. Cory Kinnan charted Milroe’s deep ball at 51%, which is above average for his scouting profile. He can, and will, unload deep passes with a lot of touch and is on-target in that zone as well. When you can put the ball in a bucket like this, an NFL team can make you into something.

This is a big boy throw, an out-breaker against man coverage to the far side of the field. He sees the defender travel with WR Ryan Williams and the safety over the top, which allows him to access this corner route by putting the ball into the bucket.

Ok, now that we’ve discussed what Milroe can do and can be at the NFL level, let’s talk about some of his shortcomings. To start off, putting it simply: His accuracy and ball placement are all over the place. As good as he is at throwing the deep ball, his quick game ball placement is incredibly poor. As I sat watching him miss on easy targets, I wondered why he would miss on these but be on the money downfield. I think a majority of it comes from his mechanics and his feet. Look at this incompletion against Tennessee from his lower half. As Williams runs this over route, Milroe’s body isn’t set to throw this accurately, but man he just sails this because his plant leg isn’t lined up with where he’s throwing. There are too many instances of this on the tape, where his lower body is mechanically out of whack.

Milroe will also lock his back leg often when he throws the ball, sapping his accuracy downfield despite having a strong arm. He ends up keeping his back leg behind him and the throw ends up being all arm, hurting him on passes like these where he just sails it.

This is the biggest knock in Milroe’s game, what’ll hold him back from being a consistent starter. He’s not a super flexible passer, which affects the various arm angles he could possibly unlock. Philadelphia Eagles’ QB Jalen Hurts is also not a flexible passer, but Hurts’ development track and what he is as a passer could be something that Milroe replicates. However, in order for him to do that he’s going to have to fix his lower body.

I also think that his process is just a tick late too much. He holds on to the ball a little too long, and it sometimes gets baffling. The issue is, though, I don’t think he’s being fooled by the coverage. I think it’s because he’s waiting for the receiver to uncover versus throwing him open. Milroe will hold onto the ball to let his receiver get into the window instead of throwing with anticipation, and the ball is going the right place, but the timing is way off. Let’s look at this play against Michigan, where he’s correct to target the over route, but he waits until he’s truly wide open to let this ball go, and it allows for the safety to drive on the ball and force an incompletion. That’s what alarms me the most with Milroe, even more than the accuracy.

The NFL has seen these incredibly athletic quarterbacks get drafted and still have yet to pan out. The Colts took Anthony Richardson in the top five (which admittedly I loved), because even though he was going to take a minute to pan out, the athletic upside was too much to pass up.

With Milroe, I think teams are reeling from what happened with Richardson and Justin Fields (who is a very good comparison playing style wise), which is pulling Milroe down the board. However, the highs are so high and might be too good to pass up.

Now I don’t see him going on Day 1 at all, but on Day 2 I can see someone buying in on the upside and athletic tools. He will test a team’s (and their fanbase’s) patience, but in the right ecosystem, he truly could be anything.