Blogging The Boys
The Joe Milton trade last week really was incredible.
It’s important to have a quality backup quarterback. The Dallas Cowboys have learned this lesson the hard way a time or two. There have been many times over the last two decades where the team has been put in a bad spot due to not having a viable backup quarterback on the roster. And with Dak Prescott missing time in four of the last five seasons, it’s not wise to head into the new season without a backup plan.
The Cowboys have relied on Cooper Rush for the last few years, and he’s been decent. The team has tried to get better but hasn’t had much success in doing so. They rolled the dice when they traded for Trey Lance, the former no. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Lance was an incredibly raw quarterback when he entered the league and only threw 102 passes before the San Francisco 49ers decided to give up on him. The brain-trust at The Star believed there was still something there and gave the 49ers a fourth-round pick in exchange for the last two years of his rookie deal.
Because the Cowboys acquired him in late August of 2023, he only had one training camp with the team. He never saw the field that season and only saw any real action in one game over his two seasons with the team. He finished his career in Dallas going 25 for 41 for 266 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Needless to say, the Lance trade didn’t work out so well for the Cowboys.
Not to be discouraged, the Cowboys are making another trip to the ‘pet sematary’, hoping things will work out differently this time. The team has given it another go by making a trade with the New England Patriots for last year’s sixth-round pick, Joe Milton.
Things are different this time. At least, that is what we want to believe. Milton doesn’t have the draft pedigree of Lance, but his inexperience as a pocket passer is evident which is why he was a late-round pick. The Patriots invested their third-overall pick in Drake Maye last year, and they bought some insurance in the form of Joshua Dobbs in free agency, so it was going to be a tight squeeze to keep Milton on the team as he would serve only as a development guy to keep in their back pocket.
But now, he’s in the Cowboys' pocket. For a fanbase that’s had to witness the underwhelming arm strength of Rush over the last few years, the rocket arm of Milton is quite intriguing. But we shouldn’t ignore that the Patriots had him in their clubhouse for a year and were perfectly okay with giving him up for almost nothing. The Cowboys gave up a late fifth-round pick but got an early seventh-rounder in return, making the cost of acquiring Milton equivalent to a sixth-round pick.
The gist of it is...
