By Dianna Russini, Chad Graff and Saad Yousuf
In a move that adds intrigue and depth behind Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys are acquiring second-year quarterback Joe Milton III from the New England Patriots, a league source said.
Dallas is sending a fifth-round pick to New England in exchange for Milton and a seventh-rounder.
The Patriots picked Milton in the sixth round of last year’s draft and he spent most of the season as the third-string quarterback, but he played the final game of the season, when the Patriots needed a loss to secure the No. 1 pick. Instead, Milton played well, completing 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown while scrambling for another score in a win over the Buffalo Bills.
Milton, 25, adds upside to a Cowboys depth chart that only included Prescott and journeyman Will Grier before the move. It’s another move for Dallas to take a shot on a quarterback with a high ceiling after trading for Trey Lance in 2023 and having him for two seasons.
For the Patriots, it’s a way to maximize an asset they didn’t plan on using. Drake Maye is the team’s no-doubt starting quarterback and they added journeyman veteran Joshua Dobbs as the backup. Milton gets a chance to be a team’s No. 2 quarterback and work behind a veteran, two things that wouldn’t have happened with the Patriots.
What it means for the Cowboys
The Cowboys have been in the market for a backup quarterback since Cooper Rush signed a two-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens in free agency. Rush had been the primary backup in Dallas for the last four years and a backup in some capacity with the Cowboys since 2017.
At the league meetings in Florida earlier this week, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said the team was still looking at tinkering the roster “from a trade standpoint” and adding a backup quarterback was on the table. Acquiring Milton checks both boxes.
This is the second time in three years that the Cowboys traded for a young backup quarterback after they acquired Lance in August 2023. Lance was a highly touted top-five pick that cost a fourth-round pick for the Cowboys and came to the team when there was some mystery with Prescott’s contract situation. Milton is a late-round pick who comes to Dallas less than a year after Prescott signed a four-year extension.
There’s not much intrigue other than the fact the Cowboys needed another backup option.
The backup quarterback has been important for Dallas in recent years. In 2020, Prescott broke his ankle early in the season and missed the rest of the campaign. The Cowboys needed Rush to win a big prime-time game against the Minnesota Vikings in 2021 and then turned to Rush again in 2022 for five starts early in the season as Prescott dealt with an injury. Last year, Prescott went down for the season in November with a hamstring injury.
Milton will compete with Grier for the primary backup spot. Acquiring Milton doesn’t mean the Cowboys won’t pick a quarterback in the draft later this month if they have the opportunity to get a player at great value but it does soften the need at the position. — Saad Yousuf, Cowboys beat writer
What it means for the Patriots
It never made sense for the Patriots to keep Milton since it was clear he would be their No. 3 QB after they signed Dobbs. This is a way to add capital before an important draft, one that is much needed to jumpstart this rebuild.
The Patriots could have waited until training camp to move Milton, hoping that impressive performances in the preseason from Milton coupled with, perhaps, some injuries elsewhere might boost his trade value. But the looming draft also presents an opportunity for teams like the Cowboys to improve their quarterback depth, so the Pats made the move now.
The Pats now have two quarterbacks on their depth chart, so it wouldn’t be a shock if they took a late-round flier on a potential backup again or chased a high-priority undrafted free agent. — Chad Graff, Patriots beat writer
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