For the third snap of their season-opening game on Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks sent third-team quarterback Jalen Milroe onto the field for starter Sam Darnold.
Milroe took a shotgun snap on second-and-6 at the San Francisco 49ers 43-yard line, ran up the middle for a 1-yard gain and left the field as Darnold returned.
That ended up being Milroe’s only appearance in his NFL debut as Seattle started the season with a 17-13 loss to San Francisco.
“Well, he had an option to throw there,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. “Option to use his legs. Made the right decision in that moment. But we have more plays up for him. We just didn’t get to them.”
Seattle used a third-round draft pick on Milroe on April 25 even though it had lined up Darnold and his backup, Drew Lock, with free-agent contracts in March. Before the season, Macdonald said the Seahawks hoped to use Milroe as a situational quarterback in 2025.
In addition to passing for 5,678 yards and 39 touchdowns in his final two seasons at Alabama, Milroe ran for 1,257 yards and 32 touchdowns. At the Crimson Tide’s pro day, Milroe ran a reported 4.37-second 40-yard dash, making him a contrasting change-of-pace to Seattle’s other quarterbacks.
During Seattle’s three preseason games, Milroe ran for 87 yards on 15 carries while completing 22-of-39 passes for 255 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.
For the opening game, the Seahawks had all three of their quarterbacks on the game-day roster, allowing Milroe to play. Most NFL teams had two active quarterbacks and a designated emergency third quarterback – a QB on the 53-man roster who didn’t count against the team’s game-day roster but could play only if the other two quarterbacks could not.
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Milroe kept alive of a streak that has seen each of Alabama’s No. 1 QBs since the 2016 season enter the NFL via the draft. He followed Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young.
Jones with the New England Patriots and Young with the Carolina Panthers started the first game of their rookie season.
Hurts was designated as a game-day inactive for the first game of his rookie season with the Philadelphia Eagles. He played 33 snaps over the next 10 games, subbed in for Carson Wentz at halftime of the 12th contest of his rookie campaign and started Game 13. He’s been the Eagles’ top quarterback ever since.
Tagovailoa served as a backup to Ryan Fitzpatrick to start his career with the Miami Dolphins. He got his first NFL action late in the sixth game of his rookie season and became the Dolphins’ starting quarterback the next week.
In Week 2 of the NFL season, Seattle plays the Pittsburgh Steelers at noon CDT Sunday at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.
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