Current New England Patriots Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Bill O’Brien held that same position for the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2021 and 2022. O’Brien helped Alabama to a 24-4 record in those two seasons, and an appearance in the 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship, but he also said at least one very dumb thing that he might regret now, given the opportunity.
During media appearances this week for the upcoming College Football Playoff, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe told reporters that O’Brien told Milroe that he should not be a collegiate quarterback. The Katy, Texas native was a four-star prospect and one of the top dual-threat quarterback recruits in the nation, but that didn’t seem to matter to O’Brien.
Alabama QB Jalen Milroe says his former OC and current Patriots OC Bill O'Brien told him he should not be a quarterback.
"How would you feel if I told you that you sucked?"
"Look where I'm at right now. So who gets the last laugh?"pic.twitter.com/xurEAr61ge
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 28, 2023
Milroe’s first season as a starter was 2023 after Bryce Young departed to become the No. 1 selection in the NFL draft, He struggled in that role at first, was benched in Week 3, and then came back hard. From Week 4 through the SEC Championship game against Georgia, Milroe completed 130 of 192 passes for 2,079 yards, 16 touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 122.7. Not that Milroe is a fully-developed starter yet — he’s still putting things together — but the growth he’s shown through his year should have put such ridiculous proclamations to rest.
The problem with what O’Brien said, if that’s the way he said it, is that it made Milroe the latest in a very long line of Black quarterbacks who have not been given the time to grow afforded to their white counterparts. Willie Thrower, George Taliaferro, Choo Choo Brackins, Sandy Stephens, Jimmy Raye, Marlin Briscoe, Eldridge Dickey, Warren Moon, and on and on… there was a series of decades in the transition from college football to the NFL in which Black quarterbacks were told to either find another position, or no opportunities would be open to them.
Some did. Warren Moon spent five years blowing up the Canadian Football League before his greatness was too much for even the NFL to deny.
Some couldn’t. Briscoe, who set a Denver Broncos rookie record in 1968 for touchdown passes that still stands today, was excluded from quarterback meetings by head coach Lou Saban in 1969, and had to play receiver for the rest of his NFL career.
Even now, you have six-time NFL Executive of the Year Bill Polian insisting that Lamar Jackson would have been better off switching to receiver when he came out of Louisville — something Polian has had to apologize for in retrospect if he ever wanted any more credibility as an analyst. There were those who questioned Justin Fields’ processing speed at Ohio State, ignoring the fact that the Buckeyes’ playbook, laden with option routes, demanded that its quarterback take time for those routes to develop.
To Milroe’s credit, he’s not accepting a bit of it.
Alabama QB Jalen Milroe: “Jalen Hurts is my true inspiration. Because through everything he always kept a smile on his face and a chip on his shoulder. When everybody turned their backs on him, he saw the bigger purpose in his future. And he’s a man of faith. You can’t beat a man… pic.twitter.com/hBjAfQZSpy
— Eagles Nation (@PHLEaglesNation) December 28, 2023
Milroe is with the right team, and with the right head coach, as Nick Saban has fully embraced styles of offensive play he used to rail against. Moreover, Saban struck the right balance between letting Milroe know what he needed to do if he wanted that job, and helping him acquire it.
“Seems like a dream, not always a good dream, but a dream that I never quit believing would become a reality,” Milroe told ESPN’s Chris Low in November. “From where I was, the way I was doubted — and even some people in this building [Alabama’s football complex] doubted me — it truly blows my mind to where it’s all led to, and the best part, where it’s led to for our team.
“I was told I would never be the starting quarterback at Alabama. I’ve been told I was not smart enough to play the position. I’ve been told everything. Even when I was named the starter at the beginning of the season, I don’t think a lot of people thought I would keep it, and if I did, that we were going to have a bad season. So, yes, I’ve faced a lot of obstacles. The main thing is the right people believed in me, here at Alabama and within my family, and I remained grounded in believing in who I am.
“That takes you a long way.”
Milroe deserved the chance he got, and nothing more. His coaches and the people who supported him were there to help, and that’s all anybody can ask for.
That’s the good news, The bad news is that there are still people like Bill O’Brien at high decision-making levels in college and pro football cutting off the supply of opportunities before they can mature.
“How would you feel if I told you that you sucked?” is what Milroe said.
Well, there should be no issue with the idea that Bill O’Brien’s handling of his young quarterback sucked, and is an embarrassment to football at any level.
