When the Seahawks won Super Bowl 60, it forced the team to alter their long-term way of thinking after drafting Jalen Milroe. So what's next for the former Alabama quarterback?
When the Seattle Seahawks drafted former Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft, many assumed he was their quarterback of the future.
At the time, the Seahawks had just moved on from Geno Smith, and signed Sam Darnold to a lucrative three-year contract. Even though Darnold had a resurgence season with the Minnesota Vikings, the lack of postseason success had many wondering what the plan was in Seattle.
Was Darnold just a stop-gap? Could Milroe even win the job out of camp? Would Milroe play a Taysom Hill-type of player in the NFL?
All of those questions lingered, until Seattle won Super Bowl 60 and seemingly solidified Darnold as its long-term answer.
For the 2025 season, Milroe continuously was the emergency backup quarterback. Drew Lock was Seattle’s number-two, allowing Milroe to study from afar.
But now with a full season under his belt, it begs the question. What is the defending Super Bowl champs’ actual plan for the former Alabama QB?
Dave Wyman and Bob Stelton, the hosts of Wyman & Bob of Seattle Sports 710, pondered that last week.
Stelton then raised concern about Milroe’s potential about being a starting quarterback.
“I don’t know what Jalen Milroe’s role on this team is,” Stelton said. “It seems like they’re putting him in a traditional dropback passer kind of situation, where he’s got a good arm… he’s not very accurate. And that was true last year and so far, it seems true this year. It feels like maybe the Seahawks are perhaps wasting an opportunity to use him as a weapon.”
Alabama fans saw this firsthand. Milroe’s athleticism could break games open in seconds, but his inconsistency as a passer often made his ceiling difficult to project.
“I’d like to think the Seahawks are not showing us everything that Jalen Milroe has to offer,” Wyman chimed in. “Because there was a wide zone stretch play where he handed the ball off, took like six, seven steps, then rolls out. Now, he handed the ball off. But if he rolls out, the entire defense crashes down. That’s how I see a play with Jalen Milroe. He keeps the ball and runs.
“But yeah, what we saw is kind of like what we saw in the Green Bay game, the preseason game last year,” he continued. “It was that they were using him as a pocket passer and that’s not really his strength. His strength is that they can use him as a weapon in the run game… But you’re right about the passes. Beautiful spiral, but inaccurate.”
This knock on Milroe’s game has seemingly never escaped him. And even though Milroe has continued to emphasize that he wants to be a traditional quarterback, taking on a Hill-like role may help extend his playing career.
It’ll be something to monitor, especially once training camp starts as the Seahawks will be the featured team on HBO’s Hard Knocks.
Seattle appears committed to Darnold for the foreseeable future.
That leaves Milroe with one challenge: prove he can carve out a meaningful role, whether as a developmental quarterback or a unique offensive weapon.
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