Sixteen weeks after joining the Seattle Seahawks as a third-round draft pick, former Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe has progressed toward the NFL team’s second preseason game on Friday night.
Milroe made his debut in a Seattle uniform last week by handling the offense in the second half of the Seahawks’ preseason opener.
“You got a lot of stuff going through your mind first game going out there,” Seattle coach Mike Macdonald said on Wednesday. “I think he just realized ‘Let’s just go play quarterback the way I’m trained to play quarterback and see what happens.’
“He’s only going to get better, which is a beautiful thing.”
Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak detailed Milroe’s progress during his press conference on Tuesday.
“I just see him growing confidently,” Kubiak said. “He’s getting more experience with the concepts. Just the way that his cadence has made strides, his ability to get in and out of plays and you just see the competitive fire come out of him.”
Kubiak said Milroe’s progress has been both mental and mechanical.
“I’ve definitely seen progress,” Kubiak said about Milroe’s footwork. “And you know, (quarterbacks coach) Andrew Janoko, (offensive assistant) Tyson Prince, that’s their job to get our guys’ feet right, and they’ve done a great job of being demanding to all of our quarterbacks.”
Milroe remains listed as the third-team QB on Seattle’s depth chart, behind starter Sam Darnold and veteran backup Drew Lock.
Because Milroe ran for 1,257 yards and 32 touchdowns in his final two seasons at Alabama, the idea that the Seahawks will use him as a gadget player or a change-of-pace quarterback has been popular with fans and the media.
Kubiak said that may turn out to be the case, but in training camp, Milroe is being prepared to run the same offense as Seattle’s other two quarterbacks.
“We’re really giving him a lot of the same style of plays that our ones and twos are getting,” Kubiak said. “We want to train him like we train our other quarterbacks. There will be other skill sets we can use, but we want to make sure that we’re training him like we’re training Drew and Sam.”
In Seattle’s preseason opener on Aug. 7, Milroe ran five series during a 23-23 tie with the Las Vegas Raiders. He completed 6-of-10 passes for 61 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions and ran for 38 yards on three carries. Milroe got the Seahawks in the end zone once.
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“I thought he handled the day very well,” Kubiak said. “I just wanted to see him keep growing, you know, not be satisfied and keep pushing to get better. And that’s part of his DNA, so I’m not worried about that. …
“Usually you play how you practice, and he’s put together some solid practices. He’s still a rookie with a lot to learn and there’s new details he’s going through every day. But it was good to see when the lights came on, he was the same guy he was here on the practice field.”
How much Milroe will play when the Seahawks take on the Kansas City Chiefs at 9 p.m. CDT Friday at Lumen Field in Seattle remains to be seen.
Macdonald said he planned to play Seattle’s projected starters against Kansas City.
“We’re still kind of working through it right now, but our guys are going to start the game out and we’ll see how long it goes,” Macdonald said on Wednesday. “… I’m excited to see these guys demonstrate what they’ve been doing, and they’ve earned it. They’ve earned that opportunity to go let it rip out there and show what they can do to the rest of the world.”
In the preseason opener, Seattle kept Darnold on the bench. Lock handled the QB duty in the first half and completed 12-of-22 passes for 147 yards with one touchdown and one interception and ran three times for 4 yards.
NFL Network will televise Friday night’s game.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.
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