Jalen Milroe is the kind of NFL Draft prospect that will get a general manager fired

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe declared for the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday, according to an announcement he made on Instagram.

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Milroe had a fascinating career at Alabama; he emerged as a true dual-threat quarterback almost immediately, despite a slow start to last season, and led the Crimson Tide to the four-team playoff last season. He regressed slightly under head coach Kalen DeBoer this season, but still generated a combined 3,570 yards throwing and rushing and 36 total touchdowns, while also becoming just the fourth SEC quarterback ever to run for 20 touchdowns in a season.

He struggled with consistency under DeBoer, throwing 11 interceptions, but he projects as one of the top four quarterbacks in the upcoming draft.

He's also the single most dangerous prospect on the board, if you're an NFL GM, and the kind of player who could wind up getting you fired.

Make no mistake here: there's a lot to like about Milroe as a quarterback. He has an incredible arm, one of the best at the collegiate level, and throws the deep ball as well as any quarterback in football. He's got good touch on those deep balls, and it gives him incredible big play potential.

He's a truly dynamic athlete; if he plants his foot and takes off, it completely changes the game in ways that few quarterbacks are capable of doing. He's big, but agile, and incredibly hard to bring down in open space, and the Jalen Hurts with a jetpack comparisons are not far off. His tool kit is enough to bring a tear to any talent evaluator's eye.

But here's the thing: Milroe comes with a lot of risk. For all the good touch on his deep balls, he struggles with his touch on short and medium throws. He has a tendency to not anticipate a receiver coming open and will wait until they are to make a play. He also relies too heavily on his athleticism at times, and will bail on throwing from clean pockets to try and make plays with his legs.

In other words, he's exactly the kind of high-ceiling, low-floor prospect that makes NFL GMs say "I can fix him." And sure, it's worked out in the past; Jalen Hurts is a fantastic example of a player with similar skills who has thrived in the modern NFL.

But here's the thing: Hurts landed in the perfect situation for him, a place where they were willing to tailor the offense to his skill set and build fully around him, with a coaching staff who knew how to handle a unique talent.

So, let's break down the quarterback needy teams in this draft, in which Milroe is likely going to be the third quarterback off the board behind Miami's Cam Ward and Colorado's Shedeur Sanders. The Giants, Raiders and Jets all definitely need a quarterback, while the Browns and Saints both should absolutely draft one as well. According to ESPN's projections, the Browns will have the highest pick in the draft, but it's not clear at this point if they'll take Ward, Sanders, or someone else and stick with Deshaun Watson at quarterback.

The Raiders and Giants figure to both take a quarterback, as do the Jets, given each of their desperate need for help at the position.

Of those four teams, do you really trust any of them to come up with a system that will suit Milroe? Do you see the Giants tailoring their scheme to his talents? Do you see the Browns, who have yet to develop even one quarterback prospect since coming back to the NFL, finding Milroe's perfect schematic fit? Or the Raiders, who haven't successfully developed a franchise signal caller since maybe Ken Stabler?

Do you see the Jets, with their dysfunctional organization led by an owner who lets his teenage sons influence personnel decisions, being the right place to nurture Milroe into maximizing his NFL potential?

Make no mistake: someone is going to take a chance on Milroe early in this draft. There are too many quarterback desperate teams eager to start their next cycle for him to fall very far.

But unless one of these teams is willing to be patient, and to change the way they play to suit his skills, drafting him is going to end one way, and one way only: with a fired general manager, and another rebuild starting in three years.