As the NFL Draft gets closer, there appears to be a growing buzz when it comes to the Los Angeles Rams and their interest at the quarterback position. It’s very possible that the interest is a smoke screen. At the same time, quarterback Matthew Stafford is still year-to-year and the Rams may want to get a younger player with potential in the building.
This is a case where multiple things can be true at the same time. On one hand, it is important for the Rams to get the quarterback situation figured out post-Matthew Stafford. The last thing that they want to do is be in a position like the Pittsburgh Steelers and remain competitive but have no plan once the franchise quarterback retires. In the Steelers case, they were forced to reach on a quarterback in 2022 and take Kenny Pickett. Pickett may have benefitted from learning behind Roethlisberger, but instead was inserted into the starting lineup in Week 4 and rarely looked to be the answer.
At the same time, the Rams also don’t need to force a young quarterback into their early draft plans. There is the benefit of the fifth-year option when it comes to drafting a quarterback in the first round. However, what’s the benefit of an Andy Dalton level quarterback on a fifth-year deal? The Rams aren’t in a spot where they have to reach for a quarterback. While it’s important to look ahead, this just isn’t the class to take a developmental quarterback late in the first round and that’s ok.
As it stands, the Rams are a team on the cusp and it feels like they’re in a similar spot as the Packers in 2020. Do you draft a lesser quarterback than Jordan Love for later or a player like Tee Higgins that can help in the now. The worst thing they can do is end up five points short in the NFC Championship game with a first-round rookie QB3 on the bench and Stafford’s window closing.
With all of that being said, there seems to be a growing buzz around the Rams and the possibility that they take a quarterback. As Draft Analyst Todd McVay recently said,
“There’s a lot of buzz right now about Sean McVay and Jalen Milroe. And McVay’s team with Les Snead pick at 26, so you gotta get up ahead (of them).”
Milroe is scheduled to have a pre-draft meeting with the Rams. The Alabama quarterback also accepted his invite to attend the NFL Draft. That doesn’t guarantee that Milroe will be selected in the first-round, but it’s certainly something worth noting.
There’s no questioning Milroe’s athletic ability. Having a quarterback that can take a loss and make it a 15-yard gain is one of the biggest advantages currently in the NFL. Per Dane Brugler and The Beast, Milroe had 12 rushing touchdowns of 10 yards or more in 2024 which was the most by a quarterback in the last 25 years. He rushed for 726 yards and 20 touchdowns last season at Alabama.
The last time that McVay stepped onto the football field, he witnessed another Alabama quarterback in Jalen Hurts rush for 70 yards which included a 44-yard touchdown to start the game. It’s possible that McVay has watched that game on repeat during the offseason and wondered what he could do with that type of player.
With a player like Milroe, the idea is almost better than the reality. It’s easy to fall in love with the playmaking ability with the ball in his hands as a runner. He has the arm strength to make all of the throws. However, there are serious accuracy and touch concerns and he doesn’t throw with anticipation. He has a tendency to bail too early and fumbled 29 times over three years.
As Cory Kinnan of Reception Perception wrote,
“Some teams are still going to be highly interested in him after seeing the Philadelphia Eagles just win a Super Bowl with Jalen Hurts…Milroe possesses a big-time arm and has legitimate 4.4 speed that he proved at his pro day…There is no doubt that Milroe has a ways to go as a quarterback. His ceiling is high, but his floor as a passer is extremely low. And his success rates show that…The way quarterbacks raise their floor is by getting the ball out quickly and on time when executing the short game. And Milroe struggled with that a year ago in Tuscaloosa…Milroe has to speed up his process to simply get the ball out and make his job easier at times. This largely stems from becoming more comfortable with what he is seeing pre-snap and being able to anticipate rotations that will be thrown at him after the ball is snapped…While Milroe may struggle with the smaller stuff, including simply identifying a quick valve pre-snap to fall back onto, his flair for creating explosive plays has me completely infatuated…Milroe is a ball of clay, but a tantalizing one.”
The San Francisco 49ers and head coach Kyle Shanahan learned the hard way in 2021 when they fell in love with the physical traits of quarterback Trey Lance. While Lance was inexperienced, he showed that he was a good athlete who could create explosives with his legs and with good arm strength to hit all areas of the field. Still, he had some accuracy issues and needed to develop consistency.
There was the pre-draft debate between Mac Jones and Lance. Some were surprised when the 49ers didn’t take Jones because he seemed to be the perfect Shanahan-style quarterback. He had the ability to slide in the pocket and react quickly. His steps were in sync with his throwing motion. Jones may not have been as athletic as Lance, but he was the most athletic in the pocket. Jones provided a known commodity while Lance was a bet on potential prospect.
Lance’s completion percentage in college was under 60 percent. According to Brugler in The Beast, Milroe completed just 52.8 percent of passes on third and fourth downs in 2024. Shanahan saw an opportunity to adapt and evolve and seemed to force it. Shanahan’s initial instinct was to take Jones, but he fell in love with the idea and skillset of Lance. With Jimmy Garoppolo still on the roster, Lance would be able to develop. However, Lance struggled to pick up the intricate parts of the Shanahan offense and when he hurt his finger early in his rookie season, his accuracy issues were heightened and he lost confidence.
By the time Lance’s second season came around and he started to change his mechanics, he was lost. The potential that was seen early never came to fruition, if it ever existed in the first place. Quarterbacks in the Shanahan offense need to be the point guard of the system. Being able to shoot a three can take it to the next level, but you also have to be able to make the layups. As time went on, Lance wasn’t able to do that. The lesson remained Shanahan talking himself out of his initial impulse and taking a raw prospect with exciting traits that would end up being a bust.
Obviously, there would be some major differences between McVay taking Milroe and Shanahan taking Lance. For starters, the Rams wouldn’t be trading a haul of draft capital to the third overall pick to select him. McVay also tends to give his players more freedom within the system whereas Shanahan likes to have more control. We’ve seen McVay adjust to a more RPO style offense with John Wolford and even Carson Wentz. Still, first round picks shouldn’t be thrown away and square pegs don’t fit in round holes.
It makes sense that McVay would want a more mobile quarterback post-Stafford. As mentioned previously, McVay is smart enough to understand the math advantages that a player like that provides. Milroe theoretically provides those advantages.
At the same time, it takes a certain level of accuracy and processing to run the more complex parts of McVay’s offense. There’s a reason why McVay moved on from a quarterback that struggled processing post-snap in Jared Goff to one that excelled in that in Stafford.
There’s a lot to like in Milroe’s game and after watching what Jalen Hurts does with the Eagles, it would make sense for McVay to want that. However, as much as Hurts adds as a runner, he has learned to win from the pocket. While mobile quarterbacks have taken over the NFL, winning from the pocket is still the most important thing needed to succeed at quarterback in the NFL. In Hurts’ case, having a top offensive line, wide receiver group, and running game certainly helps as well. There’s a reason Alabama started to hide Milroe more as their season went on last year. As Ted Nguyen wrote in The Athletic,
“Milroe is the latest run-first, super athlete with a big developmental gap who has some teams enamored with his potential…Milroe played in a creative spread attack that utilized some true dropback game but as a passer, he struggled with consistency, accuracy, timing and pocket presence. He does many things you can’t teach, but he’ll need patience to develop…Some have compared Milroe to former Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts and there are similarities. Both have strong arms, prefer to throw outside, don’t anticipate well and struggle with the blitz. Milroe is a more explosive runner and has a stronger arm, but Hurts was more accurate coming out of college. Also, Hurts improved every season and was a more mature passer than Milroe. Physically, Milroe has a higher ceiling, but his developmental gap makes him a bigger project than Hurts was…Overall, Milroe does things that you can’t teach, but his deficiencies are also hard to improve on.”
If this is the player that McVay wants to develop into his future starting quarterback, it would be difficult not to trust that. There may be parts of us that want to see it and know what it looks like. We simply haven’t seen McVay pick and develop his guy. While he developed Goff, that was a player that he inherited.
This isn’t to say that Milroe would bust or would not work if the Rams took him. However, it is fair to question the fit given the type of quarterback needed for the offense. McVay’s mentor tried the same experiment with Lance and it didn’t work out as planned. The offensive scheme still needs a player that can be an extension of the head coach on the field. That’s what makes Stafford so special as he and McVay see the game so similarly.
In Milroe’s case, the idea is exciting and can make anyone giddy. At the same time, the idea may be better than reality. Kyle Shanahan learned this the hard way and McVay shouldn’t make the same mistake.
