“I haven’t always felt this way about Jalen Milroe”: CFB analyst changes stance on $1.6M NIL-valued Alabama QB's odds to win Heisman trophy
Alabama's Jalen Milroe is one of the most talked about quarterbacks ahead of the 2024 college football season. In his first season as the Crimson Tide's starting QB, Milroe landed sixth in the Heisman voting, with LSU's Jayden Daniels bagging the prestigious trophy.
Now that Kalen DeBoer has taken Alabama's reigns in his hands, he will be giving Milroe every opportunity to shine under his offensive playbook.
Highlighting this, college football analyst J.D. Pickell spoke on his change of opinion on $1.6M NIL-valued Jalen's (according to per On3) odds of winning the Heisman Trophy, which are the fourth-best at plus-1,400 on On3's Youtube channel:
"I love this. . ... If you've watched this show for any length of time, you know I haven't always felt this way about Jalen Milroe. The turnover issues a year ago – two years ago, I guess at this point now – made me a little bit concerned. His consistently throwing the football in the intermediate game made me a little bit concerned.
"But when he gets plugged into that Kalen DeBoer offense, and they have the whole scheme installed around him and everything is built to his skill set, he is going to cook. ... Jalen Milroe is going to do crazy numbers in 2024, I promise you. Because the way that this thing is gonna work – I didn't see it at first, but I see it now – they're going to play to his skill set."
Kalen DeBoer on how Jalen Milroe can go to the next level ahead of 2024 CFB season
The Alabama crew and Kalen DeBoer seem to be working in harmony ever since their union in January following Nick Saban's exit.
While Jalen Milroe has talked about the freedom experienced while playing under former Washington coach, DeBoer has dropped his insights on how the quarterback can take his game to the next level in a recent interview with "McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning":
"Processing, whether it be processing and going through progressions and being more disciplined with his footwork and really paying attention to his footwork, tying the footwork to the timing and just that clock that you need to have in your head as a quarterback.
"And I think there were times it was really good, and then all of sudden you add some install and it drops off a little bit, but I think as the spring went along, he continued to elevate and just play ball. Just moving the chains and playing ball and not trying to run a play but run an offense.”
After DeBoer's success with quarterback Michael Penix Jr., fans will be eager to see Jalen Milroe's performance during the 2024 college football season.