When it comes to a promising, somewhat unknown quarterback, we can all become prone to flights of fancy.
Such is the case of Dallas Cowboys backup quarterback Joe Milton III, who the franchise obtained in a trade with the New England Patriots on April 3, giving up a 2025 fifth round pick and 2025 seventh round pick.
Milton, a 2023 sixth round pick (No. 193 overall), came to the Cowboys almost solely on the power of a single start in 2024, when he went 22 of 29 passing for 241 yards and a touchdown during a 23-16 Week 18 victory over the Buffalo Bills, who sat the majority of their starters for the game in preparation for the playoffs.
It was a meaningless game in terms of overall standings, but not in terms of the Patriots’ future. That’s because beating the Bills cost New England the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
The problem for the Cowboys in bringing in Milton to be the backup to longtime starter Dak Prescott is that they’re still a team coming off a 7-10 record and Prescott is still the quarterback who looked lost last season before a hamstring injury limited him to just 8 games.
That’s why Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay put Prescott on his list of “5 NFL Quarterbacks Who Could Be Benched in 2025” — a wild theory that wouldn’t seem quite so wild if it didn’t have a kernel of truth to it.
Prescott signed the largest contract in NFL history before the 2024 season. It was a 4-year, $240 million deal that made him the first player in league history to make $60 million in a single season.
“In 2024, Prescott only posted a completion rate of 64.7 percent, averaged 247.3 passing yards per game and tallied a meager 11 scores with a concerning eight picks in the eight starts he made prior to injuring his hamstring,” Kay wrote on June 3.
“The biggest reason Dallas may put Prescott on the bench is the presence of Joe Milton III, who the Cowboys traded for earlier this offseason. The 25-year-old is one of the more intriguing young backups in the league … While his presence could light a fire under Prescott, it could also spell the end of his longstanding tenure as the Dallas starter.”
Bad Vibes Abound Around Milton
The vibes have been off ever since Milton joined the Cowboys in a trade — partly through his own doing after he decided it would be a good idea to take a few passive aggressive swipes at his former team.
“It’s way different,” Milton said on a video posted to the Cowboys official YouTube channel on May 29. “This offense here brings me back more to my college days. My last offense was more everybody get tagged on which routes. This offense here is more fast and for sure explosive … I went in (the Week 18 game) and did what the play caller and head coach wanted me to do, and that’s win the game.”
Patriots reporter Greg Bedard broke more unflattering news about Milton following the trade, putting out a report that Milton was a less than ideal teammate during his short time playing for the Patriots.
“Joe Milton — and this is a direct quote from someone in the organization — is not a good dude,” Bedard said on the “Gred Bedard Patriots Podcast” on May 1. “Knowing your role, playing your role, being part of a harmonious quarterback room — that was going to be an issue. It wasn’t about Drake Maye. It was just about the room.”
