Remember Jalen Milroe?

Remember the special package of plays the Seahawks have for their rookie quarterback and third-round draft choice from Alabama, to run and pass and give Seattle a dimension beyond starter Sam Darnold? The alternative-option threat at the position they haven’t had in…well, ever?

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“We’re going to have plays in game plans for Jalen, and he’s going to rep those with the ones,” coach Mike Macdonald said in late August, at the end of the preseason.

Five games into his NFL and Seattle career, those “plays” for Milroe have been one play. A singular snap, and not in every game. He’s run three plays, one in each of three games, through five weeks.

So far he’s the Seahawks’ equivalent of a baseball pinch-hitter, having to stay ready for a singular moment that has only rarely come.

When The News Tribune gave Milroe, 22, that characterization Thursday, he cackled.

“Got keep those legs loose!” he said at his locker, through his laugh. “Gotta smack your legs a little bit.

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“No, absolutely. Gotta stay ready. You don’t know when it’s going to come.”

Each week, offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is spending game-planning time installing plays just for Milroe, to pressure the edge defenders and present a specific, run-pass threat to that week’s opposing defenses. He’s giving Milroe some of Darnold’s snaps in the starting offense in practices. That’s in addition to the snaps Milroe and second quarterback Drew Lock get on the scout-team against the Seahawks’ starting defense each game week.

Yet Kubiak has used Milroe for just three plays in five games.

Breaking down Jalen Milroe’s season so far

The Seahawks splashed Milroe right away to begin the season. It looked like, oh, OK, they are really going to do this, and a lot, this season.

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He took a shotgun snap on Seattle’s third offensive play of the season and ran a quarterback lead up the middle for 1 yard into a wall of 49ers. Darnold was split out wide as a receiver on that play. But that was Milroe’s only snap that day, the Seahawks’ 17-13 loss to San Francisco Sept. 7.

Milroe was inactive for the week-two game, Seattle’s 31-17 win at Pittsburgh. The team had fewer injured players who were available, and they needed his game-day roster spot for depth at other positions and special teams that day.

In week three against New Orleans Darnold again split out wide left as a receiver when Milroe entered the game to take a shotgun snap in the third quarter. That was with the Seahawks leading 38-6. Milroe faked a handoff to George Holani then ran around right end behind the running back. He gained 3 yards, the exited back to the sideline as Darnold played on. Veteran number-two QB Drew Lock played the fourth quarter of that blowout win.

Milroe was active to play in week four at Arizona but did not. Seattle won 23-20 on the final play.

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Last weekend Milroe entered the game against Tampa Bay with the Seahawks trailing 6-0 midway through the second quarter, again for just one play. Darnold again split out left. The the starting QB went in motion to his right into the backfield behind Milroe. Milroe took the snap and ran a college-style option play around left end. He had running back Kenneth Walker trailing. He turned up field, challenged the edge defender who took him, then pitched the ball to Walker.

But Walker and Milroe were too close to each other. The pitch went behind the running back off his trailing, right hand. The Buccaneers recovered the fumble. They converted it into a touchdown and a 13-0 lead.

“We just didn’t execute the play like we did in practice, and, (shoot), turnover,” Walker said in the locker room following the Seahawks’ 38-35 loss to Bucs.

Milroe agreed that was on him and Walker for not executing.

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“The read said to pitch it,” Milroe said Thursday. “Of course, the pitch distribution between me and Ken so that we can max that play (failed)… that’s all it was.

“I thought it was a great play call that Coach drew up, because we maxed it during the week. We failed to execute that play.”

That was Milroe’s only play of that game, too.

So it’s three plays, four total yards and a lost fumble for Milroe in his first five NFL games. The “special” package hasn’t been all that special.

The News Tribune asked Kubiak Thursday what you might have asked the play designer and caller: What’s the purpose of spending the preparation time then using Milroe for just one play in a game, just three snaps in five games?

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The coordinator answered by focusing on the fumble versus the Bucs.

“Yeah, well, you know, we didn’t execute that play real well,” Kubiak said. “And we had other things that were going well in that game. So kind of got away from that play.

“You know, I’ve got to do a better job of just making sure we are on the same page, because we didn’t do a good job of executing that one.

“And that’s not Jalen. That’s everybody. The whole offense. Including me.”

Kubiak also made the point of how well Darnold has played. He inferred that is discouraging the Seahawks from taking the ball out of Darnold’s hands and into the rookie quarterback’s, even for only a few plays a game.

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Darnold leads the NFL with 9.3 yards per pass attempt. He is third in the league with a completion rate of 73.1. He is third in passer rating (114.8). Last weekend his 28-for-34 day against Tampa Bay (82.4%) tied for his highest completion rate in a game of his eight-year career. Last weekend was his fourth career game with four touchdown passes.

“We’ve been building on things since the spring (with Milroe’s play package),” Kubiak said. “And I think it probably says more to the things that Sam’s been doing really well at.

“But we’ll continue to develop that part of our offense. There’s plenty of reps that he (Milroe) has gotten in practice that haven’t shown up yet in the game.

“Those are things that we’ll just keep developing as the season goes.”

How does Macdonald assess the Milroe package so far?

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“Yeah, the plan is to play him more than one play a game,” Macdonald said this week. “But we just either haven’t needed it or haven’t gotten to it.

“We’ll continue to work it, game plan for it and call it. And then let the games declare on how we want to play it.

“But he’s still very much part of our plans.”

It’s serving a purpose

Despite the lack of results in terms of yards, Milroe’s plays are fulfilling one of Macdonald’s and Kubiak’s objectives in using the rookie quarterback. This week the Jacksonville Jaguars (4-1) and their opportunistic defense that has produced and NFL-best 10 interceptions and four fumble recoveries in five games is spending time preparing a plan against Milroe. That is, just in case the Seahawks (3-2) use him again Sunday in their game in Florida (10 a.m., Fox television, channel 13 locally).

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“We’re running all of our plays and Jalen’s package is a part of that. And teams have to prepare for it,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald was the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator before becoming the Seahawks head coach in February 2024. He says a quarterback with a known, special package of plays presents a dimension that takes substantial time to prepare for outside the opponent’s starting QB.

“Yeah, you’ve got to have rules. You’ve got to know when he’s in the game and if he’s not a quarterback,” Macdonald said.

“Yeah, you’ve got to practice those plays.”

That’s part of the Seahawks’ point in doing this.

Unfamiliar role for Jalen Milroe

Milroe hasn’t played this sparingly since his true-freshman season in 2021 at Alabama for then-coach Nick Saban. The following year he made his first career start, replacing Bryce Young. Then he became the Crimson Tide’s full-time starter over multiple season.

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Before that, Milroe always played. He was a star at Tompkins High School in Katy, Texas. He was a semifinalist in 2020 for the Mr. Texas award as the state’s top high school player, which in football-mad Texas is as big as the state itself.

Now he’s essentially getting teased: He’s getting work each week as if it’s a part of the game plan, then not playing or getting just one chance on a single snap.

How different, or difficult, an adjustment has this been?

“So, I try to see it in different ways,” Milroe said. “Number one, it’s like, they believe I can help the team right now. And that’s something that I’ve seen in a positive light — (as) in, ‘Man, you know, I could not be playing (at all).’ But every game plan I have certain plays that I can go in.

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“So, as much as they need me as far as to help what the offense is what I’m going to do.

“But also, I want to challenge myself to get better with the routes I get during the week in the scout period, me and Drew, knocking those out. And also just being around Coach (Andrew) Janocko, my quarterback coach, who has been hearing the reads when Sam was doing his reps. That’s how I do every day.

“And of course, the competitor in me just trying to master and trying to get better. That’s the biggest thing.

“So whenever the opportunity presents itself,” Milroe said, “I’m able to go.”