In a transfer that provides intrigue and intensity at the back of Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys are obtaining second-year quarterback Joe Milton III from the New England Patriots, a league supply mentioned.
Dallas is sending a fifth-round pick out to New England in alternate for Milton and a seventh-rounder.
The Patriots picked Milton within the 6th around of remaining 12 months’s draft and he spent many of the season because the third-string quarterback, however he performed the overall recreation of the season, when the Patriots wanted a loss to protected the No. 1 pick out. As an alternative, Milton performed smartly, finishing 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards and a landing whilst scrambling for any other rating in a win over the Buffalo Expenses.
Milton, 25, provides upside to a Cowboys intensity chart that most effective incorporated Prescott and journeyman Will Grier sooner than the transfer. It’s any other transfer for Dallas to take a shot on a quarterback with a excessive ceiling after buying and selling for Trey Lance in 2023 and having him for 2 seasons.
For the Patriots, it’s a technique to maximize an asset they didn’t plan on the use of. Drake Maye is the workforce’s no-doubt beginning quarterback and so they added journeyman veteran Joshua Dobbs because the backup. Milton will get a possibility to be a workforce’s No. 2 quarterback and paintings at the back of a veteran, two issues that wouldn’t have came about with the Patriots.
What it method for the Cowboys
The Cowboys were available in the market for a backup quarterback since Cooper Rush signed a two-year care for the Baltimore Ravens in unfastened company. Rush were the principle backup in Dallas for the remaining 4 years and a backup in some capability with the Cowboys since 2017.
On the league conferences in Florida previous this week, Cowboys govt vp Stephen Jones mentioned the workforce used to be nonetheless having a look at tinkering the roster “from a industry viewpoint” and including a backup quarterback used to be at the desk. Obtaining Milton tests each bins.
That is the second one time in 3 years that the Cowboys traded for a tender backup quarterback when they got Lance in August 2023. Lance used to be a extremely touted top-five pick out that price a fourth-round pick out for the Cowboys and got here to the workforce when there used to be some thriller with Prescott’s contract scenario. Milton is a late-round pick out who involves Dallas not up to a 12 months after Prescott signed a four-year extension.
There’s now not a lot intrigue as opposed to the truth the Cowboys wanted any other backup choice.
The backup quarterback has been essential for Dallas lately. In 2020, Prescott broke his ankle early within the season and ignored the remainder of the marketing campaign. The Cowboys wanted Rush to win a large prime-time recreation towards the Minnesota Vikings in 2021 after which became to Rush once more in 2022 for 5 begins early within the season as Prescott handled an damage. Ultimate 12 months, Prescott went down for the season in November with a hamstring damage.
Milton will compete with Grier for the principle backup spot. Obtaining Milton doesn’t imply the Cowboys gained’t pick out a quarterback within the draft later this month if they have got the chance to get a participant at nice worth however it does melt the will on the place. — Saad Yousuf, Cowboys beat creator
What it method for the Patriots
It by no means made sense for the Patriots to stay Milton because it used to be transparent he could be their No. 3 QB when they signed Dobbs. It is a means so as to add capital sooner than a very powerful draft, one this is a lot had to jumpstart this rebuild.
The Patriots will have waited till coaching camp to transport Milton, hoping that spectacular performances within the preseason from Milton coupled with, most likely, some accidents in other places may spice up his industry worth. However the looming draft additionally items a possibility for groups just like the Cowboys to reinforce their quarterback intensity, so the Pats made the transfer now.
The Pats now have two quarterbacks on their intensity chart, so it wouldn’t be a surprise in the event that they took a late-round flier on a possible backup once more or chased a high-priority undrafted unfastened agent. — Chad Graff, Patriots beat creator
(Picture: Fred Kfoury III / Icon Sportswire by means of Getty Pictures)
