All the criticism of him doing this media thing or that and it all somehow relating back to him being a terrible QB...or to his most ardent detractors...not even a QB at all.
If he farted, some people would criticize the smell as proof he can't read a defense.
As for the film proving all his detractors correct, it would seem there is some debate about that even among people who are experts in the field.
IF it was an open and shut case that he's as awful as some say, why on earth would anyone in a position to decide even consider him as the starting QB?
Is it even possible that he's not as bad as some say...and not as good as other say?
Or is that not even debatable?
Well that's the great paradox of Milroe. Due to his physical tools, sometimes when he doesn't execute a play properly, he still makes something happen. The downside of that is that decent defenses can really limit his upside.
Case in point is the first play on the video Palmer uses. Milroe throws a pretty darn good ball for touchdown so that's a great play right?
Well, he had an obvious six man rush with only a six man protect, which meant an RB having to pass pro 1v1, so he should have known to be looking at a hot route instead of going deep. There was a hot route on the play to the TE, and it was WIDE OPEN. Palmer even mentions it. Milroe seems to be looking that way, but never throws the ball. For the record, Palmer is wrong about it being a bad snap at JMs ankles. The ball was placed well enough, just a hair to the right. JM muffed the catch and didn't collect it till it was almost on the ground. Even with that, there was still time to make the pass to 84. If that pass is made on time, the rush never gets close to pressuring him.
On the TD series I broke down (against AU or UGA - can't remember) where JM went 4-4, that was great right? Not really as it was the same thing where guys were open on schedule, but JM didn't throw it, so it turned into sandlot stuff and scrambling around hoping a WR would get back to an open space - thankfully Bond bailed us out. The shovel pass was perhaps the best example. JM totally screwed up by not throwing the ball on time. Guys were OPEN, really OPEN for a long time, but he never throws the ball, but then he pulls off the highlight worthy shovel pass once the play is broken. Same play, same player, being horrible one second and a highlight the next second. Thing is we wouldn't need the highlight play if he could just execute what was designed, called, and executed correctly by out other 10 guys on the field.
NFL scouts watching Burtons film from 23 said (and posted on twitter/X) that film review was watching him run great routes and being open a lot, but not getting the ball thrown his way.
PFF stats are the same way - total paradox: 9.2% big time throw rating is top 5ish as is his passing grade on deep passes. That's great. For short to intermediate, he was rated all the way down at the 100th best - that's right, 99QBs ahead of him. PFF had him as holding the ball an FBS
WORST 3.45 seconds (and it was NOT play design, per all the statements above - routes where there to be executed sooner). PFF has had his pressure-to-sack ratio as 32.4% which is the
6th WORST in FBS. All those things are awful.
A-Day game this year - going 3 for 9, and clearly not making the right throws/reads on a lot of plays. The first drive alone JM mis-executed several reads and that continued through the game leading to JMs very obvious frustration.
Net - complete paradox, where the ceiling could be high, but unfortunately, the floor is also exceptionally low. Complete busts on play execution, but then a highlight on the same play.
It's boom-or-bust. many people see the boom and that's it. Unfortunately, there's a lot of busts (more busts than booms), and the busts really limit the overall efficiency of the offense, as the boom isn't really that reliable, and a big reason why the booms are needed is due to the busts from the same dude.