Whoa! Seahawks do it, draft a rare QB: Alabama’s ‘super-excited’ Jalen Milroe in round 3
At the NFL scouting combine in late February, The News Tribune asked John Schneider what the TNT also asked him following the 2024 draft.
What is your long-term plan at quarterback?
“Well, hopefully, the (draft) board talks to us, right?” Schneider said Feb. 25 in Indianapolis. “It just hasn’t gone that way.”
It talked to them and went that way Friday night.
Seattle used their last pick of three Friday, late in the third round, to select Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe 92nd overall in the NFL draft.
Milroe is the third quarterback Schneider has selected in 16 drafts as Seahawks general manager. His selection came in the spot the Seahawks got from Las Vegas for trading former starting quarterback Geno Smith to the Raiders last month.
The last time the team drafted a quarterback in the third round: Russell Wilson, in 2012. That worked out OK.
“I’m super-excited,” Milroe said on the telephone from Houston.
He called his wait over two days, including throughout Thursday’s and to the end of the third round “unique.”
“I knew going into this process the ultimate goal was to hear my name called,” he said.
He said he ultimately reached his goal: Be where he’s wanted, where he wanted to be, and where he fits best.
“I’m just so super-excited,” he said.
“Nothing but positive vibes.”
Does he hold grudges already to all the teams who passed on him three times into the third round?
“Belt to ass,” he said.
Besides confident, Milroe is a bulldozing runner at 6 feet 1, 216 pounds. He needs to improve his passing accuracy. Yet it’s his explosiveness running outside the pocket, particularly on bootlegs, that fit what new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak wants to do with the Seahawks offense.
He said he needs to work on not taking as many sacks as he did at Alabama.
“Give Ryan Florence (Seahawks southwest-area scout) and Aaron Hineline (director of college scouting a ton of credit. They did a ton of work on him,” Schneider said late Friday. “It’s really hard for those guys to see 22 miles per hour, or whatever it was that he ran on the field.
“He’s an incredible athlete. Incredibly fast...Hard worker.
“And he’s a William Campbell Award winner, the academic Heisman. He’s had four different offensive coordinators (in college).”
The GM lauded the upbringing Milroe had. His mother Lola worked in medical services for the U.S. Navy. His father was in the Marine Corps and was deployed to war in Iraq.
“He came on his (top-30, pre-draft prospect) visit; he had a really great visit,” Schneider said.
“He’s was just in a spot, and he just kept coming. And he was there, by himself.”
About that accuracy: Milroe threw 16 touchdowns against 11 interceptions at Alabama last season. His new Seattle coaches hope to improve him.
“There’s nothing I can’t do,” Milroe said.
“Pick and choose what you want on the field, I can do it.
“I’ve never lost a game back to back in all my history of football. ...I’m a problem-solver.”
Coaches will have at least two years to polish Milroe. That’s essentially how long 27-year-old Sam Darnold’s new Seahawks contract is to be starting QB. Darnold’s heavily back-loaded three-year deal has so much money in the last year the team will have to decide before the 2027 begins whether Darnold has earned a second Seattle contract.
“Yeah, we don’t use patience a lot around here,” Macdonald said, grinning. “But there, I mean, there’s always gonna be an urgency in how we’re developing our players and how we’re training them. And Jalen’s going to be right there with everybody else.
“But Sam’s gonna take, by far and away, over 90% of our snaps this year. And however Jalen deserves and earns the right to go out there, then we’ll do that. You know, if it’s going to help the team, it’s best for us to move the ball and, you know, give these defenses, defensive coordinators some headaches, which is, I’m really happy it’s not going to be us, so that’s awesome.
“I don’t want to put a timetable on it, but, yeah, it’s not an immediate need for him to go out there and be taking a bunch of snaps for us initially.”
For now, the Seahawks will have five quarterbacks on the roster: Darnold, recently signed (to a two-year deal) Drew Lock, Sam Howell (whom they are trying to trade), Jaren Hall and, when he signs his four-year rookie contract, Milroe.
They’ll almost surely begin the season with only three.
“I’m in the right spot,” Milroe said of the Seahawks, “because people believe in me.”
Seattle’s 2nd round
Friday began earlier than scheduled for the Seahawks.
They traded with Tennessee up 17 spots in the second round, to the third pick of the round, to select big safety Nick Emmanwori from South Carolina. Seattle sent the Titans their second of two picks in the second round, 52nd overall, and the 82nd pick in round three to get Emmanwori.
The 6-4, 220-pound safety said on the telephone from his draft party at a rented, lakeside home in Columbia, South Carolina, that Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald has already told him he wants to deploy him like he did another 6-4, 220 safety with the Baltimore Ravens. Macdonald made Kyle Hamilton a Pro Bowl then All-Pro safety playing on the line of scrimmage, the deep middle, outside — everywhere — in the defensive he coordinator in Baltimore in 2022 and ‘23.
With their original first pick of the second round, 50th overall, Seattle selected Elijah Arroyo, a 6-5, 254-pound tight end who caught seven touchdown passes from Cam Ward for the University of Miami last season.
This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 7:56 PM.
