Little help for Jalen Milroe in 1st NFL start, Seahawks drop preseason finale
The best thing for the Seahawks about this final preseason game?
It’s over.
It was Seattle’s reserves against eight Packers regular starters on defense Saturday at Lambeau Field. So... yeah.
Rookie quarterback Jalen Milroe was the unlucky Seahawks quarterback who got the start. The third-round draft choice from Alabama played the entire game behind second-, third- and fourth-string offensive linemen.
They made the Seahawks coaches REALLY appreciate their starting blockers. How many years can they say that in Seattle recently?
Milroe lost three fumbles. He got sacked five times. He got hit way more than coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak wanted him to.
Any judgement of Milroe’s progress as a new NFL quarterback is going to have to wait for another day. One in which he plays against guys who aren’t going to get cut in three days.
Pressured more than Wisconsin cheese, Milroe completed 13 of 24 passes for 148 yards. His first professional touchdown, an 18-yard pass to Cody White early in the fourth quarter, was Seattle’s only score in a 20-7 loss. “What a dream come true to have my first NFL start — no matter when it is to be able to do so,” Milroe said. “I want to thank Coach Macdonald and the whole offensive staff for allowing me the opportunity to take my first start.
“Especially here at Lambeau Field. What a historic venue. It was a lot of fun to get to go out there and compete.
“So now it’s all about building upon today as an offense, and just keep on going.”
Macdonald said he was able to glean one important trait his rookie quarterback displayed amid all the muck Saturday.
“Yeah, just keep chopping. Keep building,” the head coach said. “Keep building the foundation. “He’s out there. He’s playing his tail off.
“Taking care of the football is probably the number-one thing (he needs to improve on from Saturday). He knows that.
“I think it’s definitely worth it to get him out there and have this experience.”
Macdonald has talked this month and through Milroe playing the second halves of the first two preseason games how the rookie needs to improve the “operation” of the offense. That is, getting his teammates into and out of the huddle quickly between plays. Changing plays at the line of scrimmage. Communicating formations and play calls.
The head coach said Milroe improved on that this week in Green Bay. That included in the joint practice the Seahawks and Packers had Thursday when the starters scrimmaged Green Bay’s starters.
“But you know, we’ve got to operate at an elite level to be a championship football team,” Macdonald said. “got we could operate at a league level to be a championship football team.”
He said of the reserves on offense: “We are not there yet with those guys.
“Really, as a football team it’s something we’re still chasing.”
What did Jalen Milroe learn?
The News Tribune asked Milroe what he learned playing all 60 minutes of an NFL game, against some veteran starters, too.
He spoke about the poise he displayed through what times was a borderline fiasco all around him Saturday.
“No matter good, bad or ugly, keep on going. Keep fightin’. Keep being starving. Have an optimistic mindset...despite anything,” Milroe said.
“Good, bad or indifferent, you’ve got to be the same person.”
So ends a preseason that until Saturday was wholly encouraging for the offense and its line.
The starting offensive line, that is.
New QB Sam Darnold and all 22 of the Seahawks who will start the season opener Sept. 7 against San Francisco did not play Saturday. Macdonald had his starters go full go Thursday in the joint practice against the Packers here. That was their final tune-up for the real season.
That’s why none of them were in uniform at Lambeau Field. They were all wearing matching team hats over their game jerseys and sweats. That made them more like the Seattle Whitecaps for this preseason finale.
Milroe paid the price for that.
Emotionless Jalen Milroe
Milroe played, or tried to play, behind many blockers who won’t be on the roster when Seattle cuts from 90 to 53 players for the regular season by Tuesday’s 1 p.m. league deadline.
They predictably failed to block the Packers regular starters who played early in the game. Besides the fumbles and the sacks, Milroe ran six times for 31 yards. On one scramble in the second quarter he needed rookie running back Damien Martinez to merely get in a Packer’s way for the QB to gain the first down just across midfield. Martinez didn’t get near any defender. Milroe got tackled short of the line to gain.
Yet the unflappable rookie had the same demeanor all day. After each of the four sacks, after each of the two turnovers, after two more turnovers on downs with his incomplete and batted-down passes, Milroe had the same reaction: None.
After his touchdown pass to White, Milroe looked the same he did after the negative plays. The difference that time was he got more congratulations and pats on his back from teammates on the Seahawks sideline.
“The quarterback, everybody looks at you,” Milroe said.
“Yeah, absolutely...despite anything you’ve got to be the same person. ...
“As a quarterback, you have to be consistent. Nobody should be questioning how the quarterback should be.”
On a third and 7 with Green Bay ahead 7-0 early, Seahawks backup right tackle Mike Jerrell got beaten badly off the right edge by Green Bay’s Brenton Cox. Cox hit Milroe for a sack and knocked the ball out of the quarterback’s hand. Kingley Enagbare recovered at the Seattle 30.
The Packers turned that into a field goal for a 10-0 lead.
Early in the second quarter, Milroe pushed up the middle behind reserve center Federico Maranges on third and 1 past the line to gain. But Milroe lost control of the ball in the scrum as he pushed forward. The Packers recovered that second fumble, at the Seahawks 47.
The Packers turned that into a touchdown pass and 17-0 lead. Green Bay’s Will Sheppard beat undrafted rookie cornerback Keydrain Calligan across the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown reception, on a pass from Green Bay fourth-string quarterback Taylor Elgersma.
It was that kind of preseason game.
Milroe’s third lost fumble came with 1:58 left in the game. He didn’t appear ready to catch the shotgun snap of rookie center Mason Richman coming out of the timeout for the 2-minute warning.
“Those all on me,” Milroe said, flatly.
Finally, with 4 minutes left in the second quarter, Seattle’s coaches got what they wanted to see from Milroe.
On the first play after Green Bay took that 17-0 lead, the rookie QB dropped straight back to pass. He stood tall, looking taller than his 6 feet 2. With time to throw for one of the only times in the first half, Milroe zinged a dart of a throw onto the chest of Marquez Valdes-Scantling deep across the middle. The 27-yard completion was Milroe’s best play yet Saturday.
It was the best play of the preseason for Valdes-Scantling. The 30-year-old veteran was passed by rookie Tory Horton, who was on the first-team offense until the rookie injured his ankle last week. Horton did not play Saturday.
The fact that Valdes-Scantling started and played while all other veteran regulars were watching from the sideline in those white caps puts Valdes-Scantling’s roster spot in question for Tuesday’s cut day.
After the early fumbles by Milroe, quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko (to whom offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak yielded play-calling on Saturday) called draw-play runs on two third and longs. The intent appeared to be to keep Milroe from being exposed further to hits by the Packers’ pass rush against Seattle’s porous reserve offensive line.
Milroe’s day would have looked tons better had his 50-yard pass in the final minute of the first half not tipped off White’s outstretched left hand. White had gotten steps beyond the last Packers defender on the throw, into the red zone. But the pass was incomplete.
Milroe was sacked three times in addition to losing the two fumbles in the first half. It ended with Seattle down 20-0 — and with injuries. The TNT asked Milroe what’s next, and what he feels accomplished in his first NFL preseason that will apply once the games get real beginning in two weeks.
“I’m going to be trusted,” he said.
Jake Bobo injured
Jake Bobo was the punt returner in the first half. He brought back a 66-yard punt 14 yards straight up field.
On his second return, as he was catching the punt, teammate Tyler Hall got blocked into him. Bobo fell on the contact onto the back of Hall’s right leg.
Both Seahawks remained down as trainers and the team’s medical staff rushed from the sideline to the middle of the field. Concerned teammates took a knee on the field. Macdonald went to check on Bobo and Hall.
After a few, tense minutes, Hall got up. He needed help from trainers to stand, then limp off not putting weight on his right leg. He went to the locker room on the back of a motorized cart.
Bobo got up a minute after Hall did. He took off his helmet. Macdonald tapped Bobo’s head as the third-year wide receiver and special-teams mainstay the last two Seattle seasons walked off the field straight to the tunnel leading to the locker room. He jogged the length of the tunnel.
Macdonald said after the game Bobo has a concussion, and Hall has a knee injury pending further tests.
Starting O-line
Jalen Sundell, Charles Cross, Grey Zabel, Anthony Bradford, and Abe Lucas were among those starters in white Seahawks team caps over dark-blue sweats on the sideline for all of Saturday’s game
Olu Oluwatimi was in full pads with his helmet on.
That showed Sundell has won the starting center job for week one.
Oluwatimi did not play. He appeared to be on standby if needed, much like veteran backup quarterback Drew Lock, who was also in full pads but did not play.
Maranges, the undrafted rookie from Puerto Rico, and rookie Mason Richman were the centers.
Cody White. Again.
Each time Cody White gets a chance — training camp practices, games, real games such as last season against the Rams at Lumen Field — the 26-year-old wide receiver produces.
He did again Saturday.
With Bobo injured, White became the third Seahawks punt returner early in the fourth quarter. He ran it back 35 yards, to midfield. On the next snap, he saw Milroe scramble away from more pressure. White ran back to his needy quarterback and provided him a big target on the right sideline. Milroe fired a pass onto his chest for a 25-yard gain.
Then, from the Packers 18, Milroe ran to his left. White ran into the open space in zone coverage at Green Bay’s 10. He caught Milroe’s pass and ran it into the end zone for Seattle’s first score with 12 minutes left.
Few not dressed pregame
Macdonald used a conditioning session in the morning at the Packers’ facility across the street and full-pads pregame warmups as his starters’ work Saturday.
Darnold, lead back Kenneth Walker, wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, middle linebacker Ernest Jones, starting defensive backs Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, Julian Love, Coby Bryant and the rest of Seattle’s starters fully participated in pregame.
Then they all joined the Seattle Whitecaps from the sideline.
Witherspoon led the Seahawks running off the sideline to the end zone to celebrate reserve safety Ty Okada’s diving interception of Green Bay quarterback Malik Willis early in the first quarter.
Rookie linebackers help themselves
Linebacker and defensive tackle are two of Seattle’s thinnest positions. The Seahawks will be looking to add at both positions after cuts by other 31 NFL teams by Tuesday.
Undrafted rookie linebacker Jared Ivey and second-year linebacker Jamie Sheriff helped themselves Saturday. Each had a sack in the third quarter. Sheriff consistently pushed Packers tackles into the backfield on his edge rushes.
Ivey had quite a day. The 6-6, undrafted free agent from Mississippi was down on the field injured for multiple minutes after he got hit in the knees in a pile in the first quarter. He appeared seriously injured as team doctor Ed Khalfayan ran out to the field and examined his right knee. Ivey limped into the blue medical tent behind the Seahawks bench.
Then, he walked out of the tent, grabbed his helmet off a table, and re-entered the game.
This story was originally published August 23, 2025 at 4:03 PM.
