13 years ago, the Seattle Seahawks, much like this offseason, were looking for a new franchise quarterback. Back then, Seattle signed free agent quarterback Matt Flynn at the start of the offseason, but took another bite at the apple in the third round of the NFL Draft with Russell Wilson.
Wilson ultimately beat out Flynn for the starting job, and the rest was history. In nearly an identical situation, 13 years later, Jalen Milroe may not have the same fate. Despite impressing early in his first training camp with the Seahawks, Milroe is reportedly still locked into the third-string role.
In an offseason that gave the rest of the NFL deja vu, Seattle signed Sam Darnold to a three-year deal this spring before selecting Milroe in the third round. Even with Darnold’s pedigree as a former No. 2 overall pick and his impressive year with the Minnesota Vikings as a full-time starter in 2024, there is no drug quite as intoxicating to a fan base as a rookie quarterback. Seattle fans appear to be entranced by the potential of Milroe as hype continues to build for the former Alabama star.
Jalen Milroe likely to spend 2025 on the sidelines in Seattle
There are two key differences between the 2012 Seahawks quarterback room and the current one under second-year head coach Mike Macdonald. First, Darnold is not Matt Flynn.
Flynn was a seventh-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in the 2008 NFL Draft before spending four seasons as Aaron Rodgers’ backup. In 2011, the final year of his rookie contract with Green Bay, Flynn got his second career start in Week 17 and went blow-for-blow with Matthew Stafford. Flynn led the Packers to a 45-41 victory with 480 yards and six touchdown passes. That performance alone was enough to land Flynn a three-year $26 million contract from Seattle, which was desperate to find a starting QB.
Darnold, on the other hand, has 73 NFL starts under his belt, including 17 last season when he led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record with over 4,000 yards and 35 touchdown passes. Ghosts of Darnold past returned in a Week 18 loss to the Lions and Minnesota’s Wild Card Round loss to, fittingly, Matthew Stafford and the LA Rams, as he struggled to navigate muddy pockets and became inaccurate under pressure. Still, his resume is a bit more robust than Flynn’s was when he arrived in the Pacific Northwest.
Secondly, Jalen Milroe is not Russell Wilson. Wilson fell to the third round because of concerns about his lack of size, but he was proven and polished when he left Wisconsin in 2011. In Wilson’s lone year with the Badgers, after three seasons starting at North Carolina State, he dragged the Badgers to the Rose Bowl with 33 touchdown passes to just four interceptions.
Milroe, too, has played in a Rose Bowl, but following a redshirt junior season with 16 touchdown passes to 11 interceptions and a completion percentage that dipped under 65 percent, there are plenty of questions that linger about Milroe’s pro-readiness. Unlike the undersized but athletic Wilson, Milroe has all the physical gifts, combining excellent size with running back-level ability with the ball in his hands. However, concerns about his ability to diagnose defenses and deliver the football accurately from the pocket precipitated his draft day slide.
Wilson didn’t win the job until the preseason games began, so Milroe still has time to overtake Darnold and incumbent backup Drew Lock, but it’s more of an uphill climb than Wilson faced, both in terms of competition and individual development.