Joe Milton put on a jaw-dropping performance at the NFL Combine, a predictable outing for anyone who has followed the quarterback’s career at Tennessee and Michigan.

The big-arm QB consistently wowed with his electric deep balls during Saturday’s drills. Milton also recorded the hardest throw of any QB at this year’s combine, getting clocked at 62 MPH on his hardest throw.

Coming out of the weekend, Joel Klatt admitted Milton was one of the top performers at the combine. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to show what Milton can truly do at the NFL level.

“So Joe Milton did your classic ‘Look at him throw!’ And I’ve been going on and on about these metrics where you can break ties, and you know what? That is certainly going to be the case about Joe Milton. And having said that, I will say this about QB play at any level: I do not care how far you can throw football,” Klatt said “Not at all. I think that that is totally irrelevant. Completely irrelevant in terms of playing the position.”

A bigger indicator of future success per Klatt includes your tape and being able to fit the ball into windows. He claimed QBs use their hardest throw possible “less than 5 times” in a single season while touch passes make up 45% of a typical QBs workload.

“Can he play the position? You have to go to the tape. I don’t care what his MPH was on the football. When you actually break down the way quarterbacks work, you don’t throw the football,” explained Klatt. “You pass the football with touch and leverage.”

Milton is certainly not among the top group of QBs and should be available in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft. Fans can track all the latest 2024 NFL Draft odds with SDS’s sports betting in Tennessee links and apps.

What will Joe Milton need to succeed?

The key thing Klatt went on to explain is that Milton has developed at each stop of his college career, including a 2023 season that saw the QB throw for over 2,800 yards with 20 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Milton also scored 7 rushing touchdowns.

According to Klatt, he hopes Milton will be evaluated on his tape from this past season and his ability to develop in Josh Heupel’s offense.

Beyond that hope, Milton is likely to get a chance with an NFL team in this year’s draft. While Klatt downplayed the overall impact of a strong arm, there’s no denying Milton is in the upper echelon at the position purely in terms of arm talent.

Should Milton land with the right coach and a veteran QB to learn from, he will maintain all the skills to be a successful player at the next level.