FRISCO, Texas — For years, the Dallas Cowboys opted for a steady, veteran game manager as their backup quarterback behind Dak Prescott in Cooper Rush.
That worked for many years, and Rush found plenty of success in his spot starts filling in for Prescott when Dallas’ defense was a takeaway machine in the early 2020s, winning five of his six starts across 2021 and 2022. However, when asked to uplift a Cowboys offense that wasn’t being aided by an air-tight defense, that didn’t work as well. Dallas went 4-4 in Rush’s eight starts in 2024 with a lack of a downfield passing game: Rush averaged 6.9 air yards per pass attempt last season, 29th out of 36 qualified quarterbacks in 2024.
No longer is that the plan behind Prescott. Now, Dallas has a rocket-armed youngster behind Prescott in second-year quarterback Joe Milton, following an offseason trade with the New England Patriots in which the Cowboys sent a 2025 fifth-round pick in exchange for Milton and a 2025 seventh-round draft choice. He was a sixth-round pick in 2024 (193rd overall), falling late despite high-level athletic tools after playing in an offense with the Tennessee Volunteers that doesn’t ask much of its quarterbacks mentally. After spending his rookie year on the bench behind 2024 third overall pick Drake Maye in New England, he was unleashed for Week 18 against the AFC East champion Buffalo Bills. That’s where he flashed the mobility and arm talent that led to Dallas pulling the trigger on a trade to go get him.
Milton powered the Patriots to a 23-16 victory over the Bills that day by throwing for 241 yards and a touchdown on 22 of 29 passing in addition to a 1-yard rushing touchdown. This performance made him the only Patriots player since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger with both a passing touchdown and rushing touchdown in his NFL debut, according to CBS Sports Research.
“I went in there and did what the play caller and head coach wanted me to do, and that’s win the game,” Milton said Thursday after Dallas’ second organized team activities practice open to media. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. It was the last game of the season. I was just going off happy. I went out with a win in my first game ever in the NFL. That’s pretty much all I was thinking about, until two months later and boom, I’m here. After the Buffalo game, I was like, it’s fun. I feel like I can keep doing this. I feel like there is more that I need to let out. I was just having fun. It’s probably one of the best days of my life.”
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His best play was far and away his 48-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Kayshon Boutte. That play involved a sequence in which Milton rolled far to the right to evade Buffalo’s pass rush before he lasered a cross-body throw to Boutte, who became wide open after Milton scrambling cleared out the defensive backs covering his target. Plays like that have new Cowboys coach and offensive play caller Brian Schottenheimer “so excited” to develop Milton in Dallas’ quarterback room.
“So excited about Joe. I was excited about Joe before we got him,” Schottenheimer said on May 20 after Dallas’ first practice of OTAs. “When you go into these deals and you’re talking about making trades, we all reach out to people that you know, people that you trust, people that have been exposed to said player at college, different programs, friends that have been around him. And you just dig and you ask and you get different opinions and there’s always an outlier good and bad. With each of them, you try to peel those away. But from the time he’s been here, the work ethic is incredible. He’s one of the first people in the building. He’s one of the last to leave. The way he’s attacked the playbook and picking it up has been incredible. And it’s been fun for me to watch Dak and Will [Grier], but really Dak take a mentorship role with Joe.”
Milton called coming to Dallas “a blessing” and called being able to learn from Prescott “great” as the Cowboys’ starter enters his 10th season as an NFL starting quarterback in 2025. How raw and developmental is Milton? Schottenheimer declined to get into specifics, but he did mention adjusting to an NFL playbook is an area where the 25-year-old is playing catch up.
“I think they all are [developmental],” Schottenheimer said of his quarterback room. “I think Dak is in the developmental phase. That sounds crazy for a guy who has played that much. There are things that we are tweaking with Dak. I don’t think it’s just for Joe. Joe is a guy, we obviously know about the talent, but the system that he came from in Tennessee, created some challenges in terms of what he has to learn and things like that. The minute these quarterbacks think they’ve figured it all out, that’s when it’s probably time for them to do something different. The way defenses attack in this league it makes it almost impossible to relax.”
Milton has a unique way he learns a new offense. Instead of using a typical dry-erase board, he utilizes a piece of tape as the line of scrimmage and then poker chips with letters drawn on them to represent the different skill-position players. That’s a method a quarterback trainer of his recommended. His girlfriend will read plays out from a script, and then Milton will call the play back at her before going to his chips and lining them up in the formation. It’s a routine she and Milton will do every day from the end of mandatory minicamp on June 12 through the beginning of training camp at the end of July.
“It’s way different,” Milton said of the Cowboys’ playbook and language. “This offense here brings me back more to my college days. My last offense was more everybody getting tagged on which routes. This offense here is more fast and for sure explosive. … I feel like we’re taking the right step in the right direction every day. We’re paying attention to small details.”
His OTA performance thus far, in the two practices open to media, have been mixed. He threw a couple of interceptions in 11-on-11 team drills on May 20. On Thursday, he was locked in with the second-team offense, the highlight being a connection with a Volunteers and current Cowboys teammate Princeton Fant. The tight end was able to take a throw over the middle from Milton to the house. Milton’s best play of OTAs thus far wasn’t seen by the media but detailed by Schottenheimer on Thursday. Milton pulled the trigger on new Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens‘ most exciting play in Dallas thus far, a red zone touchdown catch.
“There was a play and it really wasn’t anything that George did, but we were in the red zone and we were in kind of a spread formation and we hit him for a touchdown. Joe [Milton] did on a little bender, a little skinny post, down in the low red zone. CeeDee [Lamb] was on the other side,” Schottenheimer said Thursday. “When CeeDee broke out, he looked back to see where the ball went, and he saw George in the end zone kind of drag his toes. CeeDee was like, ‘Yessss!’ I think his excitement for knowing that we’ve added some pieces which will add to the competition. It was cool to see a guy like CeeDee be excited.”
Plays like that are why the Cowboys feel like there’s plenty more untapped potential for Dallas’ coaching staff to dig into with Milton.
“The talent speaks for itself. You guys will see it today. He made some incredible throws yesterday,” Schottenheimer said on May 20. “He’s just an exciting young prospect that I think the sky’s the limit for.”
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