Blogging The Boys
Joe Milton was such a great decision.
Through all the Dallas Cowboys have done to address their roster this offseason, questions remain on both the personnel and coaching side when it comes to how much this team has truly improved and is ready to compete in head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s first year. The Cowboys had been in a bit of a lull in adding new players, seemingly content with the state of their roster ahead of the draft, until Thursday when they swapped yet another day three compensatory pick for a player at a position of need. The Cowboys acquired former New England Patriots quarterback Joe Milton, a 2024 sixth-round pick out of Tennessee, for a fifth-round pick. The Cowboys also picked up an additional seventh-round pick in the deal.
Dallas getting active in the player acquisition process again here early in April also provides the latest chance to discuss Brian Schottenheimer’s outlook for year one. After an extremely negative initial reaction to the Cowboys going with an internal candidate promoted from an offensive coordinator role after the Cowboys offense struggled so much on offense a year ago, Schottenheimer was able to put together an impressive staff that went a long way in earning some much needed fan trust. After an initial wave of free agent signings and trades though, there hasn’t been much to judge Schottenheimer by, and whether or not he is actually the right coach to lead this team into what will effectively be the start of Dak Prescott’s new contract is still a great uncertainty.
The Joe Milton trade doesn’t at all change the fact the Cowboys are built to move forward as Prescott’s team, and will go as far as he can take them with an offense still lacking an obvious solution to the run game. It does change the dynamic of an all-important room inside of The Star though, and one that Schottenheimer should naturally gravitate towards given his background. The Cowboys kept a very tight circle in the QB room under Mike McCarthy, who talked openly and often about his QB development school and how much he enjoyed keeping that as a constant between Prescott, Cooper Rush, and most recently Trey Lance as backups. Schottenheimer was on McCarthy’s staff for three years of his tenure, and made one of the very few internal hires on his first staff as HC for QB coach with Steve Shimko. Shimko comes from a similar rank as Schottenheimer, promoted from offensive assistant to QB coach. Maintaining the sanctity of the quarterbacks room is something Schottenheimer clearly wanted to keep in place, but adding Milton gives the Cowboys something new they have not had in the room in some time. Milton represents the first young, developmental, still potentially on-the-rise QB they’ve had as a backup in some time.
Trey Lance was supposed to bring some of these qualities, but the former first-round pick had already played in eight games and shown his clear strengths and weaknesses in all...
