The new Seahawks OC has a rare talent in his QB room, how will he plan to use him?
As the Seattle Seahawks wrapped up their rookie minicamp, there was a palpable buzz from the media and coaches about this draft class. Arguably the biggest “draft winner” in terms of the praise John Schneider and Mike Macdonald received for essentially all of their picks, there is one pick and player that continues to draw the most intrigue.
With respect to the immense talent and day one production potential from rookies like Grey Zabel, Nick Emmanwori and Elijah Arroyo, it’s the quarterback mystery box that is Jalen Milroe who seems to be getting the most attention. With the third round pick, athletic skill set off the charts, and reportedly unrivaled leadership skills, it is hard not to be reminded of a certain player that checked those same boxes back in 2012.
While Russell Wilson dominated practices and preseason to the point where former head coach Pete Carroll had no choice but to start Wilson, that is an unlikely situation in 2025 with Milroe and Macdonald. Sam Darnold is coming off a top ten MVP season, and just signed a sizable contract that shows Seattle believes in his potential to be a franchise quarterback. Milroe is a far less developed passer than Wilson was, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t make an immediate impact on this offense.
After Jalen was drafted, Macdonald was quick to point out that the Alabama signal caller was going to be developed as a quarterback. “He’s going to be trained to play quarterback for us,” Macdonald said. “When he’s in there, he’s going to be playing quarterback. But the athleticism is going to come to life when he’s on the field.”
This response came off the heels of the natural connection between what Milroe can do, and what Saints swiss-army knife Taysom Hill has been doing in New Orleans for the past six seasons (the last of which was with Klint Kubiak calling the plays).
Under Kubiak, Hill played in just eight games before being injured, but made an impact in limited snaps. In his eight games, Hill would play quarterback, running back, tight end, and kick returner where he would amass 465 scrimmage yards on 62 touches and six touchdowns. Under Kubiak, it’s important to note that Hill only threw the ball four times, the lowest of his career. It is clear that Kubiak viewed Taysom as a weapon rather than a QB. This was made clear by Macdonald as well, “”The way (the Saints) used (Hill) was more in a tight end-fullback hybrid role, sometimes taking snaps; Jalen is a quarterback through and through,”.
The two players that many have compared to Milroe in terms of impact as an athlete are Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts, obviously those are two elite quarterbacks that have changed their game with far more than just their legs, but that added weapon has been deadly. While Milroe is nowhere ready to process and deliver throws to their standard, his speed is right there with Jackson and his power running the football is the closest thing we have seen to Hurts. So how were they integrated into their offenses?
Starting with Lamar in Baltimore as a late first round pick, the expectations were high for Jackson even with him starting the season behind a fading Joe Flacco. As the backup, Lamar saw only 12 passing attempts and 26 rushing attempts in the team’s first nine games. In limited action that mostly saw him in shotgun, Jackson was 7/11 for 87 yards and one score, while rushing for 139 yards on a 5.3 average. It wasn’t until the Ravens benched Flacco at 4-5 that they handed the offense over to Lamar, who would lead the Ravens to a 10-6 finish and the AFC North title. With Lamar in fewer short yardage shotgun runs and more in QB scramble mode, he sliced up defenses with 556 rushing yards in the final 7 games. His career has been pretty good since.
When Jalen Hurts was drafted in the second round of the NFL Draft, the situation in Philadelphia was rough, as Doug Pederson and Carson Wentz were soon out the door. Hurts received even less action than what Jackson saw as a “weapon” back up, seeing only 16 total touches (three passing attempts) before becoming the starting quarterback in the four games. When he was given the nod, he completed just over 50% of his passes and ran for nearly 70 yards a game. It wasn’t until Nick Sirianni showed up in Philadelphia that we saw Hurts make the jump.
History shows that these players usually don’t become the “weapon” fans are hoping for as rookies, but I did find it interesting when Macdonald said that Sam Darnold was going to be taking 90% of the snaps in 2025. That’s a quote you rarely hear from an NFL coach about their starting quarterback. So what does 10% of the snaps potentially going to Jalen Milroe look like?
Last season, the Saints under Kubiak dealt with massive injuries to their offense and yet still ran nearly the same amount of offensive plays as the Seahawks, at 60.7 and 60.6 plays per game respectively. Assuming we see growth and improvement from the offensive line and the new scheme, that number should go up. This means we could be seeing Milroe on the field between six to seven plays a game.
That may not seem like a high amount, but when you consider the number of touches that Jackson and Hurts saw in year one, that number is closer to what Taysom Hill saw at 9.25 targets/touches per game last season.
It is rare to see a player like Jalen Milroe enter the league, and it may be rare what we see out of him in Seattle. The Seahawks clearly have a playoff caliber defense that is the heart of the team, while the offense is going over an extreme makeover, but one that has created excitement and hope and mystery. We know that the Kubiak scheme has always been successful at running the football, and has consistently been QB friendly with its limited reads, bootlegs and easy throws.
I do believe that Macdonald is telling the truth about Milroe playing quarterback. If we truly do see Jalen on the field six or seven times a game, I expect to see half of those to be in goal line and short yardage situations, similar to what we saw with Taysom Hill when he was lined up at QB. I believe on the other half of those plays, we will see Milroe be given his favorite plays, most likely in a bootleg of some kind that will give him a down the field option, a check down, or the option to run.
If he can take care of the ball, I think the combination of his skill set, paired with Kubiak’s potential packages for the rookie, could be more than just an accelerated development process, but an opportunity for Milroe to play a real role in getting the Seahawks back into the playoffs in 2025.