Former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum compares Jalen Milroe to Jalen Hurts

Jalen Milroe is a more unique prospect at quarterback considering what he also brings as an athlete. However, he’s not unlike another name that has gone on to have success in the league from out of his time in Tuscaloosa.

Mike Tannenbaum gave comparisons around the NFL for the quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft during ‘Get Up’ on Friday. For Milroe, Tannenbaum went with Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles considering their athletic traits that, with the right franchise, pair with an improvement to their passing games to be the best players they can be.

“This is uncanny,” said Tannenbaum. “Both had 71 total touchdowns at the University of Alabama. They’re only two pounds apart. And, Jalen Hurts, very much pertains to this conversation, was developed, took him some time. I think, Jalen Milroe? Very similar. Like, high floor, the ceiling is very high but there’s some work to be done. So, if a team can take him with a vision, let him develop? Look at this floor here. He’s a great athlete. Great arm. Accuracy just needs to be more consistent.”

Mike Greenberg would agree with him as far as the similar development needed from Milroe to Hurts. They already had the build and all that comes with it but the question is if a team can help him to make the same progression.

“The weight piece of this, I think, is what took me aback when you first said it because, when you just look at them, Hurts looks so solid, right. I mean, he just looks so much bigger than Milroe. But, we had Jalen Milroe in studio. He’s bigger than you think he is,” Greenberg said. “He is an extraordinarily gifted athlete. The question is can you develop him into a quarterback? It has happened, obviously, with Hurts. If you do that with Milroe, you’ve got something special.”

Jason McCourty and Dan Graziano, though, also saw the other side where Milroe may not fully develop from a prospect to a player like Hurts. McCourty likened it more to the current state for Anthony Richardson of the Indianapolis Colts which, to Graziano, is why he thinks it’d be a risk for a franchise to draft Milroe with a first-round pick next week.

“I feel like we were saying the same thing a few years ago when Anthony Richardson was at the top of the draft and you were looking and saying, alright, this kid has amazing athletic ability, if we can just develop him, he can be like a guy like Jalen Hurts. So, I look at it for Milroe? It’s the same thing,” said McCourty. “Yes, at the height, to Graz’s point? We do maybe get a Jalen Hurts. On the other side, if you don’t develop him, he doesn’t take that next step, you may end up like the Colts with an Anthony Richardson standpoint. But, a lot of it has to do with the pedigree of a guy like him coming from Alabama and the hope is that he has that work ethic and everything that you need.”

“That’s the problem with Anthony Richardson. If they’d taken Anthony Richardson in the second round, no one would be mad about it. And, if Jalen Hurts hadn’t panned out then, you know, the Eagles would not be ripped for wasting that – maybe, by some,” added Graziano. “But, no, it’s a very different standard and that’s why I think you’re going to see that group (of quarterbacks) go a little bit later because I think that’s where people are with them. If we take them at three, that’s too risky. If we take them at thirty four, then it’s not.”

Potential is everything when it comes to the evaluation and assessment of Milroe. Milroe is very athletic with his arm talent and speed, running a 4.37 in the 40 at the Tide’s Pro Day, in a body that was at 6’2″ and 217 pounds at the NFL Combine. That said, while those strengths showed at times the past two years in his yardage and scoring, weaknesses were there too, namely in reading and, therefore, completion and turnovers, while at ‘Bama.

With less than a week until the draft now, it’s projecting more and more like Milroe could be a first-rounder or, at worst, be a name off the board early on day two. That then leaves it up to whichever team takes him to develop what all he has into what many think he could become at quarterback.