Talking Quarterbacks

Edition #814

☀️ Good Morning ☕

NFL prospects will depart Indianapolis today as the scouting combine comes to an end. Scouts will now turn their attention to Pro Days up and down the country.

We have a few interesting notes to cover today, most of which revolve around QBs. Tomorrow is the deadline for teams to designate franchise or transition players then it’s full throttle through to the start of free agency, which begins a week today with the negotiating period, or legal tampering period. Players won’t be able to sign contracts until the 12th of March but a lot of deals will filter through quickly.

How active will the Jets be? How aggressive will they be on the top tier of free agents? We’re about to find out if the Jets really are looking to “win now” as both Mougey and Glenn stated at the combine, or if this is going to be lower and slower process.

🟢 A couple of notes from Rich Cimini to start things off this morning. We finally have an update on forgotten man Jordan Travis. According to his agent: "His rehab with the Jets was not the best," his agent, Deiric Jackson, told ESPN. "They tried to rush him. It was too fast. There was pressure on the coaching staff and they tried to get him going sooner than the timeline really was. That caused the setback, and we had to shut him down completely." The Jets for what it’s worth responded to that accusation stating they stuck to the exact timeline outlined by his surgeon orthopaedist Robert Anderson. So it’s all a little messy and it’s a bit of a blame game at the moment. Travis has been out for 15 months now and it’s going to take a while for him to be back to his best. His agent said "I'm optimistic." in reference to him being ready for the 2025 season.

🟢 The combine offered a chance for Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell to talk about Aaron Glenn "He's going to be phenomenal, man, AG's a superstar", and for Broncos GM George Patton to talk about Darren Mougey "I always thought he was a hidden gem, I was surprised when other teams weren't talking to him. He has a plan Paton, he knows what he wants. He know how to build."

🟢ESPN’s Dan Graziano had his combine buzz column this weekend and he had this nugget on talk around the Jets: “The Giants' plan at QB after losing out in the Matthew Stafford sweepstakes feels a little unsettled. They could use the No. 3 pick on either Miami's Cam Ward or Colorado's Shedeur Sanders if still on the board, or they could move up to No. 1 to take one of them. A lot of folks believe the Titans are interested in trading out of the top pick, and the Giants and Jets are among the teams believed to be interested in moving up.” Moving up to the 1st overall pick from #7 would cost an absolute fortune. You’re probably talking 3 first round picks and some. Personally, I don’t believe there is a can’t miss QB prospect in this draft, that strategy to move up would be extremely dangerous and if they miss on the pick, it makes it very hard to come back from.

🟢 From that same article we have some more talk of the Jets being interested in Justin Fields - “The sense I get is that Justin Fields has an edge over Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh's free agent quarterback pecking order. There is sentiment for Fields in the building, and both sides would be open to a return. The Steelers have at least another week to crystallize those plans, and they certainly haven't ruled out Wilson at this point.Regardless, Fields should have options. The Jets, for one, are expected to gauge his market. His skillset would fit in Chip Kelly's scheme in Las Vegas, too.” We’ve already spoken about Justin Fields this off-season and I’ve already stated that I’d be on board that move as a short-term option with actual potential.

🟢 You’ll remember that we spoke about Brady Cook last week and PFF had this to say about his combine performance: “Cook exceeded expectations as an athlete, boosting his stock from a fringe draftable player to someone who should now hear his name called. He ran a 4.59 40-yard dash, posted a 10-foot broad jump and recorded a 37-inch vertical while displaying confidence in the throwing drills.” They also highlighted Alabama man Jalen Milroe and Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard for their arm strength. Today we’re talking about Milroe, tomorrow it’s Riley Leonard and then it’s NFL free agency the rest of the week.

Over the weekend it was revealed that new Jets QB coach Charles London spent time working out Jalen Milroe on the field as other QBs were going through some running drills. This created a little bit of buzz in the online Jets communities, and it’s notable.

However I expect that Charles London will work out a few QBs and Milroe was unique in that he’s a first/second round prospect who actually elected to throw at the combine. The vast majority of QBs like Sanders, Ward, Ewers etc decided not to throw as many do now. So London took advantage of the opportunity to work out Milroe who impressed throughout the weekend with his arm strength.

So is Jalen Milroe a realistic option for the Jets? Should they be interested?

If you missed Milroe’s combine performance you can watch it below. I wasn’t blown away watching him over the weekend, but he’s obviously got a ton of arm talent. He learned from his mistakes (can see that in the video below) and he can clearly make all the throws. Can he make them consistently time after time, that’s the question. Is his mid-range game good enough for the NFL level and can he process the whole field and find 2nd, 3rd or 4th reads. Those are all the questions.

Here’s what I will say about Milroe, hearing him talk he sounds like an Aaron Glenn player. He comes from a military background, is always 110% in and he has been widely respected and lauded as a true leader in that Alabama locker room, which is absolutely packed full of NFL talent.

Milroe was a 4* prospect coming out of Tompkins High School in Katy, Texas. He committed to Alabama after originally opting to play for Texas. Over his high school career he had 3,825 passing yards, 559 rushing yards, 53 total touchdowns and 30+ wins. The scouting report on him coming out of high school was that he was a great duel-threat QB with good arm strength but with inconsistent footwork and accuracy. Which is basically identical to his scouting report coming into the NFL.

He originally started his career with Alabama as a backup to Bryce Young for two years before taking over in 2023 once Young left for the NFL. He got benched in 2023 just a couple of games into the season with Tyler Buchner taking over, it didn’t take long for Saban to realise that Milroe was by far the best option on the roster. Despite that adversity, Alabama finished that 2023 season with a 12-1 record and an SEC Championship, although they did go on to lose to #1 Michigan in the 2024 Rose Bowl.

There was a lot of talk following that game that Milroe was tipping the call with how he set his feet. He had his feet offset prior to passing plays, side-by-side on running plays and Michigan seemed to pick this up straight away. How it wasn’t rectified by the Alabama staff before that point is beyond me, but I do think it was largely sorted during the 2024 season.

But I will say that when I watched some of his work at the Senior Bowl, I did think the mechanics were a bit all over the place

2024 wasn’t quite as successful as his first year with his touchdowns dropping from 23 to 16, his completion percentage lowered and his interceptions were up from 6 to 11. But his rushing touchdowns went from 12 in 2023 to 20 in 2024. So across the board it evened out, despite Alabama only managing a 9-4 record, a poor showing for them. Over the course of his four year career at Alabama he completed 64.3% of his passes for 6,016 yards, 45 touchdowns and 20 interceptions while rushing for 1,577 yards and 33 TDs.

A lot of people have compared him to Jalen Hurts, but I would say that Hurts was a much more accomplished passer coming out of college. Similar build, similar attributes, but Hurts also had more experience and more production coming out.

I sorted through a little data to see where Jalen Milroe ranked in college in comparison to his peers in 2024.

128 quarterbacks dropped back to pass at least 200 times last season in the FBS. Here is how Jalen Milroe ranked in base stats:

Completion: 64.3% (38th)
Touchdowns: 16 (67th)
Interceptions: 11 (95th)
Yards Per Attempt: 9.7 (9th)
Turnover worthy play %: 2.4 (24th)
Pressure to sack rate: 18.5% (75th)

Then I wanted to look at how he performs under pressure as that seems to be a good indicator of NFL success, at least immediate.

There were 87 quarterbacks in college who were pressured on at least 100 dropbacks.

Completion under pressure: 44.2% (43rd)
Yards per attempt: 6.6 (23rd)
Yards: 564 (45th)
Touchdowns: 4 (36th)
Interceptions: 2 (10th)
Pressure to sack rate: 18.5% (53rd)

Moving on to how he performed when showing off his arm talent and trying to stretch the field. There were 61 quarterbacks who attempted at least 50 passes of 20+ yards last season.

Completion: 39.3% (20th)
Yards: 892 (15th)
Yards per attempt: 15.9 (6th)
Touchdowns: 10 (12th)
Interceptions: 3 (28th)

His deep passing is also better than it looks. He actually only had one turnover worthy play, but did have 3 drops from his receivers. So when you add it all together he’s one of the best deep ball passers in college.

We also haven’t really spoken about his rushing ability. When you put up 32 rushing touchdowns in two years, you know you have something in the ground game. I like the idea of the Jets having a true duel-threat QB. Something we haven’t really had for a while.

I don’t think drafting and starting Milroe in year one is an option. At least not a very good or appealing one. But there is something about him that I like. Started for a couple of years, discipline, military background, leadership, and the duel-threat ability can’t be denied.

If you can sign a veteran and draft Milroe to sit for 1-2 years and work on his mechanics, that could be a very appealing solution for a team like the Jets. But would you draft him at #7? That seems too high for me, I’d probably look to move down and take him if I wanted to take him at all.