The Cowboys have clearly upgraded with Joe Milton.
Buffalo Bills v New England Patriots | Rich Gagnon/GettyImages
The Dallas Cowboys have a new-look quarterback room this year after they traded for Patriots backup Joe Milton. A lot of fans expected the team to re-sign longtime QB2 Cooper Rush, but it’s clear they wanted a different profile behind Dak Prescott.
That cannot be said for Trey Lance, who seemingly sealed is fate after he tossed five interceptions in the final preseason game last year. It’s unfortunate on many levels, but the Lance trade was the equivalent to Dallas setting a fourth-round pick on fire.
The jury is still out on the Milton deal, but the second-year QB has impressed early on. So much so that Jon Machota of The Athletic notices a stark difference between the two signal-callers.
“Joe Milton to me just has more confidence than I felt like I ever saw from Trey Lance,” Machota said on the Cowboys Collective podcast. “I’m not saying there’s not things in Lance’s game that weren’t good and not a reason why you wouldn’t have interest in him or anything like that. But Milton, when he’s out there he has a lot of confidence. He does not look like a guy that was a late-round pick. He looks like he was probably a day two pick …”
The Joe Milton trade already looks like a win for the Cowboys
It is not a huge surprise that Lance lacked confidence. He was dealt an unfair hand in San Francisco and ultimately lost his starting job to Brock Purdy while he was injured. The former No. 3 pick said all the right things with Dallas, but he failed to beat out Rush for the backup job.
Not only does Milton have the edge on Lance in the confidence department, he has a much stronger arm and is a better athlete. That has been evident in both OTAs and mandatory minicamp
In Tuesday’s practice, Milton finished a perfect 8-for-8 in team drills, per Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Other reporters had Milton 10-for-10, but he was perfect nonetheless. His afternoon included a gorgeous deep ball to receiver Jalen Cropper.
It is important to note that defensive backs can’t be super physical in these practices. That will change come training camp, but it speaks volumes that the Cowboys are only a handful of practices into the offseason program and Milton is already turning heads.
Milton is still incredibly raw. His accuracy comes and goes. That can be attributed to his footwork, which can be stationary while he cans the field.
But it is easy to see why Dallas is betting on his upside. Confidence is half the battle with professional athletes and it appears Milton has more than enough of that to succeed.