Quarterback Jalen Milroe participated in his first NFL practice on Friday as the Seattle Seahawks opened their rookie minicamp.
“My parents made a joke: It’s like your first day of class today,” Milroe said. “They took a bunch of pictures after practice.
“But, no, it’s definitely cool to be an NFL quarterback, get my feet wet, get acclimated with everything. And so it was definitely a dream come true, for sure.”
But Friday wasn’t Milroe’s first day at Seahawks school. He said the studying started shortly after Seattle selected him from Alabama in the third round of the NFL Draft on April 25.
“The next day I got the playbook,” Milroe said, “so it was a quick turnaround for sure. Definitely now, this is my job. Now I know where I’m going to be. It’s a long process, for sure, so now I know where I’m at now. But, yeah, it was a quick turnaround.”
Milroe said he had studied a variety of NFL quarterbacks since the Crimson Tide’s season ended in preparation for transitioning to, at that time, an unknown destination and offensive system.
“This past offseason I did a lot of studying of Brock Purdy, Joe Burrow, Geno Smith and Lamar Jackson,” Milroe said. “And one thing that’s for certain at the quarterback position in the NFL, you got to play on time, you got to know where your hots are at, you got to have pocket integrity and you got to be willing to learn and grow. And so it comes from the preparation and also understanding your assignment on each and every play. And so at the quarterback position, when you do all those things, the game slows down.”
Because of their running ability, Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens and Milroe draw easy comparisons. Purdy has 480 rushing yards in 40 NFL regular-season games. But the San Francisco 49ers quarterback might have been the most beneficial example for Milroe in his offseason studies, and Purdy already is part of his classwork with the Seahawks.
Seattle’s offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, was the 49ers’ passing-game coordinator in 2023, when Purdy led San Francisco to the NFC championship and earned Pro Bowl recognition in his first full season as an NFL starter.
“It’s funny,” Milroe said. “When we watched clips of concepts, you’re watching these quarterbacks of that tree, that family of playing in that system, and so you’re just seeing those traits that I mentioned, and so that’s definitely the quarterback that I’ve watched, and he does it at a really high level.”
After a week of study and one practice with the Seattle offense, Milroe said: “My early impression is you’ve got to prepare. You’ve got to study. You’ve got to know it like the back of your hand. And you’ve got to study. You’ve got to get extra time in with the coaches. One thing that’s for certain, the meeting time is not enough for grasping the offense. You’ve got to take extra time aside when you’re not around the coaches, whether you’re with your teammates, whether you’re at home. Always time to grow and learn the system because when you know the system, when you have great preparation, you play even better.”
Milroe said he liked what he saw at the first practice for Seattle’s rookies.
“For Practice 1, that was a really good day,” Milroe said, “when it comes to timing, everyone flowing, the tempo that we played with, everyone caring, appreciating. When you make a good play, everybody’s celebrating and congratulating that person. No one was selfish in that sense. Everyone was caring about each other because we’re trying to reach the same goal. No matter where you’re at on the depth chart, we’re trying to all be successful, so I think that was something that I saw that I’m really happy about because we have a lot of good dudes that was on the football field today.”
