NFL Network: Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III is a 'late-round flyer' in the NFL Draft
Joe Milton III has two things working against him in next week’s NFL Draft. He’s a raw prospect, according to NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, and he spent the last six seasons playing college football.
“So that’s kind of a tough combination to sell a little bit there,” Jeremiah said this week during a conference call with reporters previewing next week’s NFL Draft in Detroit.
The first round is set for Thursday night on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network. Round 2 and Round 3 will be held Friday night and Day 3 wraps up the draft on Saturday.
The best-case scenario for Milton, according to Jeremiah, is in the later rounds on Saturday.
“I think he’s a late-round flyer,” Jeremiah said on the conference call. “(In) terms of trying to find a (team), I think you just want to go somewhere where they’ve got a good quarterback developer. But I think that will be pretty late in the draft.”
Joe Milton at Tennessee: 2,813 pass yards, 20 pass TDs, 5 INT, 505 yards rushing, 9 rush TDs
Milton finished last season with 2,813 yards, 20 touchdowns and five interceptions. Milton in 2022 threw for 971 yards and 10 touchdowns, appearing in nine games as Tennessee’s backup quarterback, playing behind Hendon Hooker.
Milton ended his Tennessee football career by completing 22 of 33 passes for 383 yards and four touchdowns in the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt on November 25 at Neyland Stadium. He ran five times for 11 yards, giving him six total touchdowns on the day.
ESPN two weeks ago picked ideal landing spots for every quarterback in the NFL Draft, with Milton going in the sixth round as the No. 200 overall pick to the Buffalo Bills.
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“When I’m looking at potential landing spots for late-round quarterbacks,” ESPN NFL Draft analyst Jordan Reid wrote, “I always focus on skill sets and try to find situations where offensive coordinators wouldn’t have to condense their playbooks much stylistically if those teams had to turn to the backup.
“And Milton has some similarities to Josh Allen because he is big — 6-foot-5, 235 pounds — with great arm strength.”
2024 NFL Draft: April 25-27, Detroit, ABC, NFL Network
Buffalo’s quarterback depth chart has Mitch Trubisky and Shane Buechele behind Allen. Trubisky has a two-year, $5.25 million contract and will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2025 season. Buechele is on a one-year deal worth $1.025 million.
“Even though Milton’s accuracy is nowhere close to that of Allen,” Reid wrote, “he would be a good fit in this scheme. Milton has one of the strongest arms you will ever see, with the ability to heave the ball 70 to 75 yards in the air.
“But his ball placement is all over the place, and that will take some work.”
