Alabama QBs in 2024

[colbysullivan]

Milroe’s strengths:
Arm strength
Running Ability
Ball Placement
Touch

That’s it. Reading defenses. Anticipating pressure. Throwing receivers open. Etc. Not his thing.

His strengths are strong enough to win 9 games. The other three - “hold on to your hats”…. Gonna be a bumpy ride.

I would highly argue against ball placement and touch.

 

[BamaMoon]

I would highly argue against ball placement and touch.

Agree on "touch" for sure. Because he has such bad mechanics he can't "spin" a short pass so it comes out like a wounded duck.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

You basically did on reading defenses and I think the mental part of the game is easier to overcome than the physical and you can get better with time and experience which he is getting right now.

This simply is not true. The mental part of almost any sport is the hardest. I can attest the mental aspects of baseball (especially baseball), football, and basketball are harder than the physical. You can rep a physical flaw out of your game, but it is exponentially harder to do the same with a mental flaw of the game.

 

[tusks_n_raider]

I would highly argue against ball placement and touch.

It’s intermittent at best.

His touch on Deep Balls is the best but the ball placement is always off with the WR having to make adjustments.

He has below average touch on the shorter stuff and the medium passes.

Ball Placement is generally off most of the time though.

 

[gtgilbert]

To your first point, I think that is inaccurate. Baseball players go into slumps, golfers have the yips and basketball players continuing to miss free throws/shots in a slump are mostly mental.

To your second point, in business it is called the Peter Principal what you are referencing and is when a person has advanced through the ranks as far as he can and he hits a ceiling. I don't think Jalen has hit his ceiling yet.

I'm not sure you got the point at all, but I wasn't hinting at a slump, or anyone having maxed out. That's not it at all

One more time. People in all aspects of life get better with more experience at what they are doing.

Some do, some don't - everyone is unique in their ability to move across each unique attribute.

 

[Ledsteplin]

It got started because Saban and CTR said it so that's a good source. The staff literally changed the ENTIRE offense because JM couldn't make the reads required, and then when that was not working, they stopped calling RPO type plays and forced designated QB runs because JM wasn't making the right read on the edge player. Saban and CTR are on record discussing this and how much they had to try to simplify things.

Why do you think Saban talked so much about how proud he was of the job the coaching staff did with the team this year? He said multiple times he thought this season was best job by the coaches since he's been at 'bama.

Wow! It amazes me how we can interpret a coaches words so differently. First, I don't recall Coach Saban or Coach Rees ever saying Jalen could not read defenses. Those are words someone here on TideFans, or somewhere else, said. But I'm not sure how it's connected to what Coach Rees said. Or was it Saban? Rees was making some adjustments to the offense to better suit Jalen's skill set and strengths. It was something all Coaches do with quarterbacks, but is usually done during Spring and fall camp. I thought it was a positive thing, but you turn it into something negative.

From a Bama Central article from December 29: "One of the biggest points of emphasis for Rees and the offense as the season progressed was molding the offense to fit the strengths of Milroe in order to give them the best chance to be successful.
"I think when we made the decision after USF, of 'hey we're going to build things around what we do really well, build it around Jalen,' that took a couple weeks to transpire," Rees said."

Coach DeBoer and Coach Sheridan have pretty much been doing the same, in preparing Jalen and the other quarterbacks for the new offense. Personally, I think Jalen starts in September. He's been working really hard on improving. They all have, and I think it will show. Jalen is fun to watch, and I can't wait to see how he's improved. But I will support whoever CKD starts. I don't have any negative feelings toward any of them.
One thing I consider, is who would best lead the offense in a big game shoot-out? Or if an opponent jumps out to a 14 point lead, who could best lead us back into the game? I like Ty and Dylan, but my answer is always Jalen Milroe. Every time.

 

[TiderJack]

Milroe doesn't have the yips. The yips would mean he was doing things successfully and then suddenly and unexpectedly just started making weird mistakes.

I don't know where Milroe's ceiling is, but if he doesn't acquire the ability to read defenses and make presnap reads....his ceiling is lower than the other QB's on campus. A kid like Milroe has relied on his freakish athletic abilities throughout his young career....he's got to unlearn what he has learned and learn other things he hasn't.

I did not say he has the yips. Just pointing out that great athletes with above average physical talent can have mental challenges they must overcome. Some do and some don't but is does exist.

How do you know they are lower than the other QB's on campus? Simpson is the only one with some game experience it was an incredibly small sample size. Not a compelling argument.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Then you have no idea what you were watching last season. He was borderline horrible at reading defenses and most times depended on pure athleticism to get out of it. Our best wr transferred because of of it. You need to take the John Conlee 8 track out and remove the rose colored glasses. For you to say his not being able to read defenses was "overblown" says it all.

Yeah, the main reason Bond transferred was probably because Milroe returned for another season, not CNS retirement...

 

[Cruloc]

Yeah, the main reason Bond transferred was probably because Milroe returned for another season, not CNS retirement...

Bond transferred for that Lambo.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Bond transferred for that Lambo.

True, but that determined WHERE he was transferring to...

 

[irvingtontide]

Yeah, the main reason Bond transferred was probably because Milroe returned for another season, not CNS retirement...

I thought the talk was he was already looking at Texas and was possible to transfer then when Saban left he bolted. Also he did mention having a pocket QB like ewers for part of his reason on transferring but I imagine NIL Saban, and ewers probably played a part.

 

[Cruloc]

I did not say he has the yips. Just pointing out that great athletes with above average physical talent can have mental challenges they must overcome. Some do and some don't but is does exist.

How do you know they are lower than the other QB's on campus? Simpson is the only one with some game experience it was an incredibly small sample size. Not a compelling argument.

I'm basing it on what I've seen with my own eyes. If Milroe comes out and suddenly can make presnap reads then we finally have something. He hasn't shown that ability....at all. Not even a hint of having that in his repertoire.

He didn't learn much during the season last year either. We reined in a lot of the offense because of things he just wasn't able to do proficiently. I would have expected by the second half of the season to see at least some improvement on his reads presnap and post....his field vision....his pocket presence....his decision making.

I'd imagine....because they have no experience, or limited experience....that the other guys would have a higher ceiling in that area. They may not, but the fact Milroe didn't really improve in that particular area after the course of entire season, leads me to make that assumption. Maybe he proves me wrong and comes out looking like Bama's version of Burrow.....maybe he doesn't.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

I thought the talk was he was already looking at Texas and was possible to transfer then when Saban left he bolted. Also he did mention having a pocket QB like ewers for part of his reason on transferring but I imagine NIL Saban, and ewers probably played a part.

Yeah, IIRC Milroe had already announced his decision before CNS announcement.

 

[gtgilbert]

Wow! It amazes me how we can interpret a coaches words so differently. First, I don't recall Coach Saban or Coach Rees ever saying Jalen could not read defenses. Those are words someone here on TideFans, or somewhere else, said. But I'm not sure how it's connected to what Coach Rees said. Or was it Saban? Rees was making some adjustments to the offense to better suit Jalen's skill set and strengths. It was something all Coaches do with quarterbacks, but is usually done during Spring and fall camp. I thought it was a positive thing, but you turn it into something negative.

From a Bama Central article from December 29: "One of the biggest points of emphasis for Rees and the offense as the season progressed was molding the offense to fit the strengths of Milroe in order to give them the best chance to be successful.
"I think when we made the decision after USF, of 'hey we're going to build things around what we do really well, build it around Jalen,' that took a couple weeks to transpire," Rees said."

Coach DeBoer and Coach Sheridan have pretty much been doing the same, in preparing Jalen and the other quarterbacks for the new offense. Personally, I think Jalen starts in September. He's been working really hard on improving. They all have, and I think it will show. Jalen is fun to watch, and I can't wait to see how he's improved. But I will support whoever CKD starts. I don't have any negative feelings toward any of them.
One thing I consider, is who would best lead the offense in a big game shoot-out? Or if an opponent jumps out to a 14 point lead, who could best lead us back into the game? I like Ty and Dylan, but my answer is always Jalen Milroe. Every time.

Ok - so building around what you do well is a two sided coin right? Focusing on those things and doing those things more, means you won't be doing some others and you're effectively taking that out of the offense. There are only so many reps in practice and plays in games so if you do X more, you have to do Y less. That's simple logic.

So what did CTR take out? He took out a vast majority of the existing passing concepts in an attempt to simplify the reads that had to be made.

realistically he tried to get to something like Hurts ran his TF year where it was a single key decision or only required a single side of the field read at most. he tried to implement more RPO (again, single key, in sequence progressions) as well. Everyone was talking about the change because it was very, very obvious and the coaches had clearly spoken with the media about it also. Unfortunately, even that didn't work! CTR said they had to simplify more and only call designated QB runs/gives/passes from the sideline b/c JM wasn't reading the edge progression or the single read pass progression right.

We'll just have to disagree that JM was fun to watch. I personally found it to be very painful to watch 10 guys on offense execute a play well, with the OL doing what they needed to do, and then a WR or TE or RB (often multiple guys per play) come open on schedule and them NOT get the ball because JM didn't execute (either physically or mentally) fast enough to get the ball there on time.
Seeing multiple WRs, TEs and RBs look extremely frustrated, often shaking their heads and looking down, walking back to the huddle was very discouraging as all those guys came to bama and put in a bunch of blood, sweat and tears and did everything they were supposed to do, yet were not getting their opportunities.

I've no clue how this will play out over spring, thru summer and fall. I just know that if a version of JM that is anything close to what we saw last year starts, it's likely going to be another very frustrating year. If it's a new and vastly improved version of JM appears and can execute in a way that let's the rest of the offensive players show out, then great. If not, I hope one of the other guys steps up and can take the reigns.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Bond transferred for that Lambo.

He was gone before that. He was done with the QB situation at Alabama. The Lambo and all the other stuff came afterward. The dude was done with Alabama.

 

[BamaSully]

Since this isn't in Blue I have to ask...

How can you say this with a straight face?

I don't know where he's at right now because we have nothing to go on between Jan and now...

But 2023 MIlroe absolutely could not read a defense pre or post snap to save his life.

He was a 1 read QB for the majority of the season and sometimes on a good day a 2 read QB.

There were countless plays all year where if the 1st read was covered he totally locked up mentally when he had WR's and TE's and RB's open.

He wouldn't even run to daylight later in the year because he was defiantly trying to prove he was a passing QB.....but he wouldn't throw it away either and just ate losses.

He's not 'Fine' in this area.

He needs to make massive amounts of improvement to effectively run CKD's Offense.

Can he? I don't know... Maybe he can.

But it can't just be passively dismissed and hand waved away like it's not an issue. That's just absurd I'm sorry.

If JM was showing he just didn’t have it in practice he would not have been starting. I think he probably just had a mental lock he would fall into when live bullets were flying. If CKD can just get him to relax and calm down and just do a few simple things consistently, he’ll be fine and we’ll be fine.

One other note. Someone said the QB1 job is locked up. No it’s not. CKD hasn’t been as successful as he has by being that stoopid. They’re have Spring practice for a reason. No jobs are locked up.

JMO

 

[BamaSully]

This simply is not true. The mental part of almost any sport is the hardest. I can attest the mental aspects of baseball (especially baseball), football, and basketball are harder than the physical. You can rep a physical flaw out of your game, but it is exponentially harder to do the same with a mental flaw of the game.

In some ways you’re right but in others you’re wrong. For example, sometimes in golf I cannot get out of my own way to save my life. Everything is bad. Then I have a little attitude change and everything gets better. I didn’t change anything physical. I just stopped “pressing” and reverted back to a smooth easy swing. In that case, one simple, instantaneous mental adjustment improves all the other physical problems.

I’m hoping something similar is currently happening with JM

 

[Bamabuzzard]

If JM was showing he just didn’t have it in practice he would not have been starting. I think he probably just had a mental lock he would fall into when live bullets were flying. If CKD can just get him to relax and calm down and just do a few simple things consistently, he’ll be fine and we’ll be fine.

One other note. Someone said the QB1 jobs is locked up. No it’s not. CKD hasn’t been as successful as he has by being that stoopid. They’re have Soeing practice for a reason. No jobs are locked up.

JMO

Not true. He was more than likely the best of the worst. None of the quarterbacks going into the season were very good or prepared to play on a high level. Sure, we got "glimpses" of Simpson, but I'm certain the more he played, we would have seen his warts as well. Our quarterbacks were severely unprepared to play on an SEC level going into the season. The coaching job done by Saban and Rees was award worthy.

 

[Cruloc]

In some ways you’re right but in others you’re wrong. For example, sometimes in golf I cannot get out of my own way to save my life. Everything is bad. Then I have a little attitude change and everything gets better. I didn’t change anything physical. I just stopped “pressing” and reverted back to a smooth easy swing. In that case, one simple, instantaneous mental adjustment improves all the other physical problems.

I’m hoping something similar is currently happening with JM

Its not a mental block with Milroe. He wasn't doing things right then suddenly wasn't. It isn't a slump or the yips.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

In some ways you’re right but in others you’re wrong. For example, sometimes in golf I cannot get out of my own way to save my life. Everything is bad. Then I have a little attitude change and everything gets better. I didn’t change anything physical. I just stopped “pressing” and reverted back to a smooth easy swing. In that case, one simple, instantaneous mental adjustment improves all the other physical problems.

I’m hoping something similar is currently happening with JM

An attitude adjustment doesn't fix certain types of flaws that a player has wrt the mental side of the game. I'm glad it fixed your golf game, but that is very rare across the spectrum of sports. The mental side of the game is the most frustrating aspect of most sports and the hardest to fix in most cases. Physical flaws have concrete solutions such as drills, but mental flaws/blocks do not. It is a mystery as to what corrects mental flaws/blocks in players and the solutions are nowhere near as concrete as solutions to physical/mechanical flaws.