What Nick Saban said about Jalen Milroe getting drafted by Seattle Seahawks

A smile came over Nick Saban’s face late Friday night, as Jalen Milroe’s long wait in the NFL Draft came to an end. Performing his duty as analyst for ABC’s draft coverage, Saban clapped as his former quarterback was selected by the Seattle Seahawks with the No. 92 overall pick in the third round.

“That’s great,” Saban said before shaking his head in relief. “He’s going to give the Seahawks an element of offense that nobody else in this draft can give anybody. This guy is fast. He’s explosive. And look, he can throw the ball. He’s got a strong arm. He’s a great deep-ball thrower. He just needs a little refinement and consistency in the passing game and he can be an outstanding player.”

Once thought of as a possible first-round pick, Milroe slid down to the final picks of the third round Friday night. The drop was largely due to his inconsistencies in the passing game late in the season.

Milroe is coming of a redshirt junior season that saw him complete 64.3% of his passes for 2,844 yards and 16 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. However, he failed to reach the 300-yard mark through the air during each of his final eight games, combining for 1,570 yards and five touchdowns with nine interceptions during that span.

“The thing I always preached to him about was, ‘Jalen, you make enough big plays,” Saban said. “How about let’s eliminate some of the bad plays? The sacks, the fumbles, the interceptions.’ Because those are all drive-stopping plays and you make enough good plays.”

Milroe led Alabama to an SEC title during his first season as a starter under Saban in 2023. However, that didn’t come without adversity, as the dual-threat quarterback was benched for the Week 3 game at South Florida after a poor showing during the Week 2 loss to Texas.

“It says a lot about a young man who had a bad game against Texas two years ago,” Saban said. “We benched him for a game, he came back and was the leader of our team and took us all the way to playoffs and lost to Michigan. He was a big part of all that. That kind of ability to overcome adversity is going to be an asset for him in the future.”