Former UW Huskies quarterback and current Good Morning Football analyst Isaiah Stanback joined us Tuesday on Bump and Stacy to talk about new Seattle Seahawks QB Jalen Milroe’s NFL potential.

The good news about Seahawks QB Jalen Milroe’s throwing

The third-round NFL Draft pick out of Alabama has drawn wide praise for off-the-charts athleticism (a max 99 score) and production as a runner in college (33 career rushing touchdowns). But he’s been knocked for inconsistent accuracy and production as a passer.

It’s fascinating, then, to see how his career and potential have been discussed in 2025 compared to previous generations of mobile or exceptionally athletic quarterbacks.

It wasn’t too long ago that critics wondered whether Lamar Jackson, now a two-time MVP, should transition to another position. Bill Polian famously noted the accuracy wasn’t there for Jackson and thought that the former Louisville standout would be better served as a wide receiver.

Stanback, a Seattle native who was a quarterback at Washington but played 22 games as a receiver in the pros, knows a little something about being a mobile passer — particularly in an NFL still figuring out how to categorize and develop those quarterbacks.

“At the time that I was coming up, there was a handful of guys that were out there doing it and were really the trendsetters at the time,” Stanback said. “Mike Vick, (Donovan) McNabb, (Steve) McNair, you know. Vince Young was a little bit ahead of me. So guys were doing it, but it still wasn’t fully accepted.

“It actually was kind of at the time — I don’t want to say it was looked down upon, but you were looked at as more of an athlete than a quarterback just because you possessed the ability to do more than just sit back in the pocket. It was a gift and a curse at that time.”

“That time” wasn’t long ago. Jackson was drafted in 2018. From 2012 on, the league was looking at a group including Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III, Cam Newton and Colin Kaepernick — all who were different quarterbacks with different skillsets (RGIII and Newton were entirely different rushers than Wilson and Kaepernick), but they were commonly grouped together as mobile passers.

And all faced the same questions: Could they sit in the pocket and read a defense? Were they relying too often on the ability to scramble? Would they eventually need to transition to being more pure pocket passers to avoid injuries?

The evolution of the dual-threat quarterback is of course something long predating the early 2010s (whether you’re looking at the scrambling ability of Fran Tarkenton, or Steve Young, or the playmakers Stanback watched in the early 2000s). But it’s being evaluated, even embraced and developed, in a different way.

“Right now, these guys are bigger, faster, stronger. Athleticism is out of this world,” Stanback said.

But the question still remains: How can Milroe continue to grow his accuracy and decision-making?

Stanback has a bit of advice.

“I obviously got drafted as a receiver to Dallas, but when I left Dallas I actually got the call from Bill Belichick to go play quarterback in New England. So I was in the quarterback room with Tom Brady to back him up as the No. 3 guy there,” Stanback said. “And the biggest thing I took from that was just preparation. You thought you might’ve known a lot when you were in college, but when you get to the league there are levels. And the NFL is so complex and these defenses are so challenging.

“You really have to understand every aspect of it, from the defensive fronts to the second level, to the guys at the secondary, being able to identify where the safeties are. You start looking at little details like leverage — is the cornerback inside? Is his head up? Is he shading inside? What are all those alignments? The more studying you can do to give yourself that heads up and that advantage, the easier it is to decipher things.”

Hear the full Bump and Stacy conversation with NFL Network’s Isaiah Stanback in the video or audio player near the top of this post, or in the podcast at this link. Catch Bump and Stacy from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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