It isn’t easy being Jalen Milroe. Alabama’s star QB held down the fort as the program transitioned into the DeBoer era. His 2024 season has experts and analysts either in extremely high praise of him or speculating doubts about his abilities. He is among the top QBs headed to the draft this year. Like Shedeur Sanders, even Milroe’s draft prospects have gone haywire because of these mixed opinions. But Milroe is standing tall and has a clear vision of what he wants to make of his future.

Finebaum said on his show that Milroe’s hopes in the draft do not look very promising. In a recap of his 2024 season, The Tuscaloosa News wrote, “Milroe will always be remembered as the imperfect quarterback of an imperfect Alabama football team.” Despite starting off strong in 2024, Milroe seemed to struggle thereafter in the season. He pitched in more INTs than TDs scored against SEC competition. Then comes his shorter inaccuracy problems, pocket pressure troubles, and more flaws. They tend to overshadow Milroe’s physical brilliance, because of which analyst Daniel Jeremiah places him as the 86 pick. He has slipped to probably being a round 3 or 4 pick in the draft.

Milroe, however, is standing strong amidst these highly polarized opinions of him. When asked by Kay Adams about what he thinks of his “naysayers,” the QB is treating it as part of his job. “Ideally when going through this process, like if you’re not having people think or having people have opinions, you’re not doing it right. You know, I play a game where it’s viewed as entertainment. You know, it’s a unique job that I have,” he said. “It comes with playing sports. And so, I acknowledge that, you know, playing ball.” But about the question of whether he’d be seen as a starting QB this year, Milroe said, “I got to earn that.” However, he remains hopeful too. “At some point [I] will. At 1000%, I’mma pop it,” the star QB added.

Milroe is linked to going with a wide variety of teams. Among them are the Steelers, who are actively pursuing multiple QBs. In Connor Orr’s draft projection, he predicts Milroe going with Pittsburgh at No. 21. He wrote, “If I know one thing about the offenses Arthur Smith has tried to build over the years, it’s that the core tenet is toughness and the threat of a face-punching on every down.” According to Orr, Milroe’s game seems to mirror this ideology, which is why he’d be a great fit here. “Milroe offers a no-excuses, high-end battering ram under center with uncharted upside in the passing game.”  

Milroe’s strengths make him a talent worthy of teams gambling on him. Amongst his possible draft projections, is it possible that Jalen Milroe could be drafted by a team valued at $7.3 billion?

Jalen Milroe is positive about the workout with the New York Giants

The former Alabama QB recently participated at a private workout for the New York Giants. According to his words, it seems he had a great time. He told about how they mentally evaluated him. Milroe said, “I said, look, when you’re evaluating this process, you’ve got to evaluate what someone that loves football.” He also told Adams that he was happy about how it all went with the staff.

Milroe has one particular fan from within the Giants team. WR Malik Nabers is adamant that Milroe joins, according to what he told Kay Adams. She had word that Nabers was encouraging the front office to keep at it for Milroe. The QB laughed and said, “Might be true.” Nabers and Milroe share a great bond off the field, and his confident Milroe would make a great addition to the Giants.

Milroe’s chances at the draft do not really seem to be set at one destination. But the crux of the matter is that his flaws are something that teams are willing to work on, because those strengths would be fatal to miss out on. But will Milroe land with Mike Tomlin, or will he go to Brian Daboll?