GREEN BAY, Wis. — Could there be a stunner brewing at the NFL draft?
It’s widely expected that University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward will be the first overall selection Thursday night by the Tennessee Titans.
But the real mystery lies in what happens next, and whether Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders doesn’t have to wait too long to hear his name called or if he’ll be waiting around for a team to pick him. Either way, he won’t in the green room. The son of Hall of Fame defensive back Deion Sanders declined an invitation to attend the draft, as did Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, whose name has been floating around lately as a potential first-round pick.
Here’s the potential stunner: Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe could blow up mock drafts everywhere and go in the opening round.
Analyst Rick Neuheisel, a former head coach in college and NFL offensive coordinator, believes the ultra-mobile Milroe will be drafted by someone in the first round, potentially the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 21 or maybe even the Rams at 26 as an eventual replacement for 37-year-old Matthew Stafford.
“There is going to be an intrigue factor with Jalen Milroe,” Neuheisel said. “He ran 4.4, ran for a bunch of yards and had an unbelievable game against LSU. Single-handedly put Alabama on his shoulders.”
In a 2023 game, Milroe rushed for 155 yards and threw for 219 in a 42-28 victory over Louisiana State.
Meanwhile, Neuheisel thinks there’s a possibility the polarizing Sanders, who skipped throwing drills at the scouting combine, could tumble down the board a bit.
“I think the league thinks he needs to be humbled,” Neuheisel said. “I think they’re sitting there going, ‘I can’t coach him. And if he goes in the second round, maybe he’ll get it.’ ”
As for Dart, who began his college career at USC, Neuheisel wonders about his consistency in pressure situations.
“I really liked him when he was at USC,” he said. “It bothers me that [Ole Miss] lost to Kentucky [last season] having a chance to go down and win the game — they didn’t get it done.”
Neuheisel also pointed to Mississippi’s 24-17 loss to Florida last season when Dart had a pair of interceptions down the stretch.
Milroe, who is attending the draft, is the latest in a string of recent Alabama quarterbacks highly coveted by NFL teams. Jalen Hurts, coming off a Super Bowl MVP performance for Philadelphia, was drafted by the Eagles in the second round in 2020. That same year, Tua Tagovailoa was picked fifth overall by Miami. In 2021, Mac Jones went 15th to New England.
“I played at Alabama,” said Milroe, who will be attending the draft. “There’s something special about leading that script and understanding the history behind it.”
He does not appear in many mock drafts as a first-round pick.
“All I want to do is show what right looks like,” he said, “as a player and as a person.”
Neuheisel said Milroe’s ability to make plays with his feet, while remaining a threat to throw, is reminiscent of what Hurts did for the Eagles last season during Philadelphia’s championship run. That quarterback, along with superb running back Saquon Barkley, forced opponents to commit an extra defender to stop the run, therefore making themselves more vulnerable to the pass.
“It doesn’t make total sense for the Steelers given the fact that they let [quarterback] Justin Fields go, and he did that a little bit,” Neuheisel said of the Steelers, who have quarterbacks Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson on their roster. “But maybe Milroe has a better personality for it.”
He can envision either Cleveland, which has the No. 2 pick, or the New York Giants, who pick third, taking other players with those first selections then trading back into the end of the first round to draft a quarterback.
Milroe believes one of his strengths is he spent his entire college career at Alabama, whereas many top-notch quarterbacks bounce from school to school these days. Ward, for instance, played for three different programs, and Sanders and Dart are at two each.
But there are two ways of looking at that. Loyalty and continuity are important, yes, but so is the ability to adjust to different offenses, programs and locker rooms.
Joel Klatt, a draft analyst for NFL Network, said it’s important that Milroe showed he could be successful under two different Alabama coaches, Nick Saban and Kalen DeBoer.
“To me, I think that the NFL always looks at that in a positive light,” said Klatt, also lead college football analyst for Fox. “Can you master two different systems? Learn two different systems?
“Because if you’re just in one and you’re really good at it, people can look at that and say, `Well, can he do something different?’ Some of these offenses in college can be really quarterback-friendly, and they can build in wins for a quarterback that don’t need to be read post-snap.”
“The NFL likes it when players play in multiple offenses in college.”
Fellow NFL Network draft analyst Charles Davis said pro teams aren’t worried about a player’s history of transferring as long as that player has “shown an ability to adapt and grow.”
“Cam Ward went three places, thrived at every place he went,” Davis said. “Maturity. Change of location. Get along with new people. Adapt to new situations.”
Davis, who had covered the NFL for CBS but now is shifting to college football, said the value or detriment of switching schools is in the eye of the evaluator.
“I think the older the person evaluating, the more they like a guy who stays in one place,” he said. “That’s how we were raised — the loyalty aspect. Stay at one company, get a gold watch, you know, all those sorts of, ‘Oh, it showed loyalty to the school, the state. I like that.’ ”
College football and the perceptions surrounding it, he said, are in a state of flux.
“It’s like how long ago people were freaking out about guys opting out of bowl games? Yeah. No one’s worried about it anymore,” Davis said. “It’s just what we have now.”