Ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft, the biggest concern with Tennessee Vols quarterback Joe Milton, a sixth round selection by the New England Patriots, was his accuracy and whether or not he can dial back his rocket arm when a pass requires "touch". 

Another concern, according to reporting from the Boston Sports Journal's Greg Bedard, centered on Milton's character and maturity. 

Bedard recently spoke with an anonymous AFC senior personnel executive about the pre-draft concerns surrounding the players the Patriots selected in last month's draft. 

The executive noted that Milton is a "good kid", but he also pointed out concerns about Milton as a "partier" and he questioned the former Vol's maturity. 

"He was still on our board, but he was heavy maintenance and the main thing was just like the pro approach, he's a partier or at least he was earlier in his career…confidence, mental toughness, how he handled losing his job his second year, there were some concerns with that," said the executive. 

"But by all accounts, he was good kid, just immature," added the executive. "It's a concern because he's 24 years old. So it's not like he's a young guy…talent-wise he has everything you want. It's just the biggest thing is he's got to live it, eat it. To this point that's been a question mark on him."

“I give my all for Tennessee no matter what game it is” — Vols QB Joe Milton, who is now 6-2 as a starter at Tennessee pic.twitter.com/klRzOYYaRE

— zach ragan (@zachTNT) September 24, 2023

I can't speak for Milton's time at Michigan, but for the last three years at Tennessee, he was essentially a perfect teammate. And his maturity is something that was routinely praised by coaches and teammates. 

Essentially, everything we heard from the folks at Tennessee was the opposite of what this anonymous AFC executive said to Bedard. 

"If you look at the landscape of college football where guys are hitting the portal, looking for immediate gratification, Joe looked at it and said, you know what, I’m gonna be a great teammate,” said Vols head coach Josh Heupel to On3's Andy Staples last summer. “But I (Milton) know I need to grow. I know I’ve got coaches and assistants that are going to allow me to grow."

Former Vols wide receiver Cedric Tillman called Milton a "leader on this team" ahead of the 2022 season (when Milton was already locked into backup role behind Hendon Hooker). 

Additionally, former Tennessee safety Trevon Flowers said that Milton was "locked in" before the 2022 season even though he wasn't the starting quarterback. 

“You don’t see that (Milton staying at UT despite losing the starting job),” said Flowers in 2022. "It’s amazing. It shows his character. Shows what type of person he is. Shows how dedicated he is. He’s not gonna give up easily on anything, and you can just tell he’s hungry. He’s ready to work. He’s not worried about what might happen. He’s not worried about what the outsiders are saying.”

Former Vols wide receiver Jalin Hyatt, who played with Milton at Tennessee for two seasons, praised Milton as a leader in early 2023.

“Joe (Milton) can make every throw, I think we all know that. He’s a great leader as well," said Hyatt.

As for the comments about Milton being a "partier"? While I can't speak for what he did during every moment of his college experience, we do know that Milton lived with Hendon Hooker while the two were at Tennessee. And it didn't exactly sound like the two former Tennessee quarterbacks shared a party pad. 

“Me and him (Hooker) had lived together for this whole semester of school, so just watching film together every day. Enjoy these moments that we have, any play can be your last,” said Milton after Tennessee's win against Clemson in the Orange Bowl in 2022. “Every time we’d go home, we would pretty much just talk to game plan out. After we would talk it out, he would come back to my room at 1 AM saying, ‘I don’t really like that read. How do you feel about it?’ And we’ll talk about it, no matter what time it is. I mean, we’ll get up in the morning for meetings. But other than that, it just felt special. Having him up there, he put in a lot of work for this. If you want to be truthful, he got us here. So I had to get it done for him.”

The anonymous comments from an AFC executive, who presumably wasn't around Milton during his time at Tennessee, simply don't match up at all with what we heard consistently the last three years from his former coaches and teammates.

And I'm pretty sure most folks, as they should, are going to trust the guys who were around Milton for the last several years. 

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