Cowboys Joe Milton Trade Surprised 'Everyone'

Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys surprised the NFL last week when they traded a fifth-round selection in this month's NFL Draft to the New England Patriots for quarterback Joe Milton and a seventh-round pick.

It was surprising to some extent because the 'Boys were looking hard at drafting Cooper Rush's replacement. There were no signs on the radar Jones was looking to engineer a trade..

An even bigger surprise was the Patriots accepting what Jones offered when they were looking for a third-round selection for Milton with no other picks involved.

This is definitely a coup for Jones and a great move for the Cowboys.

However, there was some motivation by the Patriots to move Milton due to his desire to unseat starter Drake Maye. This comes from Patriots insider Phil Perry.

"Josh Dobbs and Joe Milton weren't necessarily fighting for a roster spot," Perry said. "To me, the smoking gun is the time of this, and the swiftness and just the firmness of the decision, which is, 'We're just not gonna deal with people walking around talking about themselves like they should be the starting quarterback when we have a young player that we believe in'. That to me, is really more the issue."

Fellow insider Tom E. Curran agreed with Perry and took the adage one step further. He believes Milton figured his age and his performance against the Buffalo Bills in the season finale, qualified him to be a starter in the league.

Milton completed 22-of-29 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for another touchdown in the 23-16 victory over the Bills. Milton thought the one-game sample size was big enough to qualify him as the starter going into 2025.

"From what we understood, it was more about Milton's comfort level and self-perception relative to Maye," Curran said. "He felt that as an older player than Drake Maye (Milton is 25; Maye is 22), he didn't think that the disparity was that great between the two individuals. And he felt because of the final game of the season (against the Bills), it seems, that, 'Hey man, maybe I should be getting a crack here.'"