Joe Milton 2024 NFL Draft: Combine Results, Scouting Report For New England Patriots QB

The 2024 NFL Draft is here, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information. 

Here's our report on Joe Milton.

Joe Milton's 2024 NFL Combine Results

• Height: 6-foot-5
• Weight: 235
• 40-yard dash: 4.63
• 10-yard split: DNP
• Vertical jump: 35"
• Broad jump: 10'1"

Joe Milton 2024 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Strengths

• Outstanding size and extraordinary arm strength with easy ability to drive the ball and make vertical throws.
• Effortless deep ball thrower. Can throw the ball 70 yards in the air without having to take any hitch steps. 
• Strong and tough in the pocket. Made throws from muddied pockets, staying with his technique and footwork.
• Showed snaps of controlled and efficient pocket movement keeping his feet underneath him and his eyes downfield.
• Physical strength in the pocket to shake off rushers and escape to be in a position to make second reaction plays.
• 2023 tape showed firm stature in the pocket with a strong base with no wasted movement and compact delivery.
• On the 2023 tape, he threw with more pace and touch making the right kind of disciplined throws.
• In 2023, he showed pocket movement to climb in response to outside pressure and stay balanced with a firm base.
• Moved comfortably and easily, responding to pressure, keeping his eyes focused downfield out of the pocket.
• Gives an offense a designed QB run game situationally. Can run zone read, QB draw and gap scheme.
• Showed a second reaction movement dimension to his game, Not an explosive athlete but can make plays 
• Physical strength to stand in the pocket and make throws just as he was getting hit. Strong powerful frame.
• Showed consistent accuracy off movement out of the pocket to right and left. Comfortable on the move.

Weaknesses

• Tendency at times to rush his mechanics from clean pockets. Footwork and arm motion too fast losing balance.
• Needs more experience to better and quicker eliminate and isolate based on coverage. Too focused on the primary.
• Consistent tendency to overthrow deep balls to open receivers. Must become more precise with his location.
• Two areas Milton must improve based on 2022 tape: pace, touch throws, and more precise ball placement.
• 2023 – Needs to better understand defense and coverage. Too many throws where coverage did not register.
• There will be hard questions — does he have the ability to effectively process routes versus coverage between the numbers?
• There will be significant questions about his ability to make timing and anticipation throws. A see-it throw-it passer.
• Pace and touch throws are still an issue. He was a fastball thrower who did not take anything off short throws.
• Ball placement is still a concern at times, especially for receivers on the move. Must be more consistently precise.
• Threw a couple of bad interceptions where he did not process the safety sitting right in the middle of the field.

NFL Transition

Milton will likely be a polarizing prospect as NFL teams evaluate him and envision his transition to the next level. Milton ran one of the purest versions of the Air Raid passing game, with an emphasis on no-huddle, fast-tempo, wide-spread formations and pure progression reads. The QB is not taught to understand the subtleties and nuances of specific defenses and coverages and a high percentage of the throws are pre-determined. There will be significant questions and discussions about whether Milton has or can develop the needed elimination and isolation traits needed to work effectively between the numbers and the hashes.

Can Milton throw with needed anticipation and timing? That question needs to be satisfactorily answered. Teams must determine whether he can throw with any sense of timing and efficiency into tighter zone windows.

Tennessee's passing game featured a high percentage of pre-determined throws and Milton’s 2023 tape showed numerous examples in which he threw to the wrong receiver based on the coverage. But that was the play call, and he threw it. Milton will have to be introduced to NFL passing concepts and progressions. He will also see defensive fronts and coverage structures that will be brand new to him.

Other Notes

Milton came out of Florida as a four-star recruit and spent his first three college seasons at Michigan before transferring to Tennessee for the 2021 season.

In 2022, he showed a lot of pre-determined, half-field reads and throws in Josh Heupel’s pure version of the Air Raid passing game. His 16-yard touchdown pass to Bru McCoy in the 2022 Orange Bowl was a great read and throw versus cover-four.

In 2023, Milton was an exclusive shotgun QB in a passing game that was relatively basic in its concepts and did not ask Milton to make many progression reads. Only 17 percent of Milton’s throws in 2023 came between the hashes.