RENTON, Wash. — After his first day wearing a Seahawks uniform on a football field, Jalen Milroe didn’t back down.
Did the Seahawks really tell him that he was the best quarterback in the draft?
“Yeah, they did,’’ Milroe said Friday when he met the media after the first practice of rookie minicamp.
It was an assertion Milroe made a week ago when he was taken by the Seahawks in the third round with the 92nd overall pick.
In a conference call a few minutes after they drafted him and made him the fourth quarterback taken, he said he’d had a feeling the Seahawks might select him based on what they told him during meetings beforehand.
“The Seahawks knew I was the best quarterback in the draft,’’ Milroe said. “They emphasized that.’’
Asked later that night if Milroe really had been the top quarterback on the Seahawks’ draft board — which would obviously have meant being ahead of Cam Ward, who was taken first overall by Tennessee — general manager John Schneider said he wasn’t.
“I don’t think he was actually, no,’’ Schneider said. “But it was damn close.’’
The juxtaposition is admittedly slight.
But it was enough for more than a few on social media to have some fun comparing and contrasting the remarks of Milroe and Schneider.
Milroe’s answer Friday proves it’s a “controversy’’ that may never be settled.
What’s far more important now is if the 6-foot-2, 216-pound Milroe can prove that he really was the best quarterback available in the draft.
He took the first baby steps toward that Friday during a roughly two-hour practice at the VMAC.
Milroe ran the No. 1 offense while former Husky Will Rogers — the only other QB in camp and attending as a tryout player — operated the backups.
A no-pads, no-contact practice that was heavy on teaching and fundamentals and featured only a short period of 11-on-11 action obviously isn’t going to yield any substantive answers.
But the Seahawks will begin to get a sense this weekend of where Milroe is refining the biggest question about his game — his throwing motion and accuracy.
Milroe completed 64.3% of his passes at Alabama, not far off the 66.0% mark of Ward.
But the general view was he struggled with his accuracy in practices at the Senior Bowl in January, and advanced analytics didn’t paint his accuracy in as favorable of a light as his completion percentage.
Pro Football Focus this week named Milroe as one of eight draft picks for whom sitting out in 2025 and essentially redshirting as a rookie would be a good idea.
“The Alabama product’s 70.5% adjusted completion percentage in 2024 was passable, but it has to be much higher,’’ PFF wrote. “He has all the talent in the world but must become more reliable on a throw-to-throw basis.”
Before the draft, PFF wrote of Milroe: “While his physical gifts make him an alluring prospect to invest in, his inconsistencies are why drafting and playing him early could end poorly. He is not consistently accurate. His twitchy throwing motion means that any deviation in his fundamentals can negatively impact ball placement.’’
The good news is that Milroe has been working on it.
He has been tutored for the last year-and-a-half by quarterback coach Jordan Palmer, the brother of former Heisman winner Carson Palmer with an emphasis on using his lower body better in his passing motion.
“The biggest thing is everything works from the ground up at the core position, understanding the lower-half mechanics of how I operate,’’ Milroe said. “Every quarterback is different and so (I’m) doing a really deep understanding of how my body functions at the core position with throwing a ball, understanding how to distribute my body when it comes to the lower half mechanics and things like that. It’s been a focus for us.
“With that, it’s all about being an efficient passer. The more you work, the more you understand your body, you’re going to be more of an efficient passer. So, that’s something that we work on and continue to work on so I could be the best quarterback I can be.”
While Milroe’s comment about being the best QB in the draft shows he has confidence in his ability, he also said he knows he has a lot to prove.
Asked Friday if he has goals for this season, Milroe said for now he has just one.
“My goal honestly is to come in and be the best version of myself and be better than I was the day before and earn the trust and respect of everyone in the organization,’’ he said. “Everyone from the top down, earn their trust and respect. With that comes other things, but that’s number one.’’
The good news is that the Seahawks can be patient, with veterans Sam Darnold and Drew Lock on the roster.
Milroe was only the second quarterback taken by the Seahawks in the draft since Russell Wilson in 2012. The other was Alex McGough in the seventh round in 2018.
Schneider often lamented that the Seahawks didn’t take more QBs given the value of the position and what it can mean to a franchise if the team guesses right on a mid- to low-round pick.
That the Seahawks were able to address needs on the offensive line (Grey Zabel), defense (safety Nick Emmanwori) and tight end (Elijah Arroyo) before pick 92 came around with Milroe still on the board made him worth the gamble.
What’s undisputed is that his running ability — he rushed for 20 touchdowns last season at Alabama and by some accounts ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash at the school’s pro day — makes him an intriguing player to see how he develops.
Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald said the Seahawks could try to get him on the field this season in some capacity, while resisting the idea it would be as anything other than a quarterback.
“He’s a unique, special … kid, special athlete … special young man, athlete,” Schneider said. “We’re going to develop him as a quarterback. With that, he’s going to add something special as we go.”
What exactly that is will be determined over time.
Friday for Milroe was a celebration of the present.
His parents Quentin, a former Marine who served in the Iraq War, and Lola, who served in the Navy, were among the many family members who were in attendance to see him take part in an NFL practice for the first time.
“It was a great feeling,’’ he said. “When I walked on the field, I really just acknowledged where I was at. My parents made a joke (that) it’s like your first day of class today and they took a bunch of pictures after practice. It’s definitely cool to be an NFL quarterback, to get my feet wet, get acclimated with everything. It was definitely a dream come true for sure.”