What went right for NFL Draft QB hopeful Jalen Milroe vs. Georgia

The 2025 NFL Draft QB class got a lot more interesting...

Sep 28, 2024; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe (4) throws a pass during warm ups before a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Will McLelland-Imagn Images / William McLelland-Imagn Images

There has been no bigger riser in this 2025 NFL Draft crop of quarterbacks than Alabama Football gunslinger Jalen Milroe. His almost perfect outing against the Georgia Bulldogs was his coming out party as he now firmly has the attention of the NFL community.

In this game that turned into a classic after a blowout first half, Milroe racked up nearly 500 total yards and four touchdowns for the Crimson Tide. He threw for 374 yards and two touchdowns, completing 82 percent of his passes on the day. All he did from there was add another 117 yards and two touchdowns on the ground as well.

Now he has draftniks and analysts buzzing about just how high he could rise in this class. So what stood out in this performance to get his draft stock shooting through the roof? Let's talk about it.

Room for improvement for the Alabama Football QB

Jalen Milroe has come a long way as the Alabama Football quarterback. His 2023 tape is littered with late and questionable decisions, inaccurate throws to every level of the field, and with Milroe winning with his legs far more often than his arm.

A room for continued growth for Milroe continues to be his downfield accuracy. He was pinpoint throwing the deep ball against Wisconsin in Week 4, but that has been less than consistent this season for the Crimson Tide. The week before against South Florida, Milroe shot 0fer when throwing 25 yards or more down the field.

This Georgia game was a bit more of that. While he connected on all three deep shots in this Georgia game, two of them were due to incredible plays on the football from his wide receivers. On the first drive of the game, Milroe connected with his receiver, but that receiver had to adjust his track from along the boundary back overtop of the numbers and back in toward defenders as Milroe leveraged his throw back into coverage instead of toward the boundary.

Then the game-winning connection between Milroe and freshman phenom Ryan Williams was an outstanding play by the wide receiver on a throw that was both behind and inside of him. Even if the intention of that throw was to throw a back shoulder to Williams, the ball was still leveraged to the inside shoulder in that case.

More consistency when stretching the field is needed from Milroe. The other weakness in his game is more of a physical thing that Milroe more than likely cannot do much to correct. His arm is pretty stiff, meaning that he does not have the flexibility in it to create multiple arm angles to throw through a variety of windows as well as put a significant amount of touch on the football. He can, however, use his legs to create space to get throws off.

His eyes! The eyes!

The most impressive part of Milroe's game against Georgia, and what will carry the most weight toward his 2025 NFL Draft stock, is what he did with his mind and with his eyes. No matter what the Georgia defense threw at Milroe both pre and post-snap, Milroe made the adjustments and made them fast.

The pace at which Milroe's eyes were moving to get from his top progression to the next was just outstanding. Georgia brought disguises, rotated safeties, and did their best to trick Milroe, but he passed every test with flying colors. A year ago, Milroe was suceptible to being sped up and frustrated against the blitz. That was not the case in this game as he made every necessary adjustment when the Bulldogs tried to bring pressure against him.

His absolute cannon of an arm then helped him drive the football into necessary windows along the boundary and over the middle of the field. At these levels of the fields, Milroe is extremely accurate and on time at just getting the football into the hands of his playmakers.

It helps when you run a borderline 4.3 40 yard dash

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban made the claim that Jalen Milroe is the fastest player on the Crimson Tide football team on the broadcast during the game. And it looked like it on the field as well. On his touchdown run down the right sideline, Milroe not only beat top safety prospect Malaki Starks to the boundary, but worked through his arm tackle as well.

Then nobody else stood a chance as Milroe broke every backside angle on the way to the endzone. He can flat-out fly with the football in his hands. Not only that, but he is agile as well. Milroe can stick his foot in the ground and change directions in the blink of an eye. Not only does he have the body type of a running back, but he has the vision and movement skills as one too.

The legs of Milroe are a massive, massive weapon. But the difference this year is that the legs of Milroe are supplemental to what he is doing with this arm and his eyes.

Where the 2025 NFL Draft stock currently stands for Jalen Milroe

It helps that the NFL is currently starved for quarterback talent and that this is a weak quarterback class. This crop of gunslingers is not as bad as the 2022 class led by Kenny Pickett, but it could be on par with the 2014 class of E.J. Manuel and Geno Smith.

In my eyes, this is currently a one quarterback class and that quarterback is Colorado's Shedeur Sanders. However, there are no other quarterbacks currently taking a stride forward besides Milroe and Sanders. Texas' Quinn Ewers is hurt for the second time in three years with a slender frame, Texas A&M's Conner Weigman is hurt for the third year in a row, and Georgia's Carson Beck has taken a massive step back.

This is to the benefit of Milroe.

The deep ball accuracy and touch have to improve, and he may be scheme-specific at the NFL level (every quarterback is to an extent). However, if his eyes can continue to pass every test thrown at him both pre and post-snap like he did against Georgia, then he can play quarterback at a high level in the NFL. He'll likely never have the arm angles, but Milroe uses his legs well to create windows.

I am not there yet with Milroe as a first round prospect, but if he can do what he did last weekend for weeks in a row throughout SEC play, I'll get there.

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