{"id":78619,"date":"2025-08-16T10:41:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T10:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=78619"},"modified":"2025-08-16T10:41:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T10:41:46","slug":"cowboys-announce-significant-decision-on-6-foot-5-246-pound-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=78619","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys Announce Significant Decision on 6-Foot-5, 246-Pound Quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Joe-Milton-III-start-ravens.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Joe-Milton-III-start-ravens.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Joe-Milton-III-start-ravens.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Joe-Milton-III-start-ravens.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Cowboys Announce Significant Decision on 6-Foot-5, 246-Pound Quarterback\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>Joe Milton III gets the start on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For the Dallas Cowboys, the Micah Parsons contract situation has been the main drama of the preseason. But there have been more traditional, on-the-field controversies as well \u2014 perhaps none more heated than who rookie head coach Brian Schottenheimer will select to be the backup quarterback behind nine-year veteran, three-time Pro Bowl selection Dak Prescott.<\/p>\n<p>But with an announcement made on Thursday, Schottenheimer gave a pretty strong clue as to which way he\u2019s leaning.<\/p>\n<h2>Milton vs. Grier in Battle For Backup Job<\/h2>\n<p>The two candidates are Joe Milton III, in the second year of the four-year, $4.2 million rookie contract he signed with the New England Patriots, who drafted him with the 196th overall pick in 2024 \u2014 and Will Grier.<\/p>\n<p>Grier was a third round Carolina Panthers pick in 2019, but has made a career as a practice squad quarterback with six different teams, including two stints with Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>Grier did start two games for Carolina in his rookie season, both losses, completing 28 of 52 passes for 228 yards and an unfortunate total of four interceptions.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Milton Has Yet to Start an Official NFL Game<\/h2>\n<p>Milton has yet to start an official NFL game, and has appeared in only one \u2014 Week 18 last season for the Patriots against the Buffalo Bills. In that outing, Milton made a strong impression, completing 22 of 29 for 241 yards and touchdown. Milton also ran for a touchdown and four first downs in New England\u2019s 23-16 victory.<\/p>\n<p>Milton got the start in the Cowboys\u2019 first preseason game, a 31-21 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams, and gave what one commentator called a \u201cJekyll and Hyde\u201d performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe second-year quarterback was all over the place early, misfiring on all cylinders, but then settled down late in the third quarter,\u201d wrote Dan Rogers of Blogging the Boys. \u201cThe team would love to see less of the ugly stuff and more of the latter.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Schottenheimer Makes Decision on Saturday Starter<\/h2>\n<p>They will get their chance. Schottenheimer announced that Milton on Saturday will get the start in the second Dallas preseason game as well, a home game against the Baltimore Ravens.<\/p>\n<p>Grier saw very little action in the preseason opener, but despite appearances, Schottenheimer claimed that his announcement should not be read as a decision on which of the two candidates will win the backup quarterback job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI need to get to learn him as the play-caller,\u201d the coach said of Milton, as quoted by Kevin Patra of<em> NFL.com<\/em>. \u201cI don\u2019t need to learn Dak. I feel like I don\u2019t really need to learn Will. So it\u2019s more of that, it\u2019s more of me having to learn Joe. I\u2019m not going to say who the backup running back is right now, who the backup quarterback is right now, because I don\u2019t have to make those decisions yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Milton Vows to Calm Down in Second Preseason Start<\/h2>\n<p>Milton attributed his uneven outing in the August 9 preseason opener to his over-excitement at getting the chance to showcase his abilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecond quarter on, I felt great,\u201d Milton said after the game, as quoted by <em>CBS Sports<\/em>. \u201cNo matter what, I think I need to calm down faster, so I can start rolling in the first quarter. I was very excited. I think that\u2019s what got me off my tracks, but I feel like if I was to go back out there again right now, I\u2019d be able to settle down faster and make those throws for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-5 inch, 246 pound Milton so far in his young career has been best known for his extreme athleticism and rocket arm \u2014 an arm that may be the strongest in the NFL \u2014 than for his achievements on the field.<\/p>\n<p>He will get another chance to change that perception on Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin<\/p>\n<h2>More Heavy on Cowboys<\/h2>\n<p>Loading more stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dallas Cowboys still have not decided who their backup quarterback will be, but they just gave a major clue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":78620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cowboys Announce Significant Decision on 6-Foot-5, 246-Pound Quarterback - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=78619\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cowboys Announce Significant Decision on 6-Foot-5, 246-Pound Quarterback - 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