Dallas Cowboys Introduce Brian Schottenheimer as New Head Coach Dallas Cowboys Introduce Brian Schottenheimer as New Head Coach | Ron Jenkins/GettyImages

The Dallas Cowboys may have Dak Prescott locked in as the starter in Brian Schottenheimer’s debut season as head coach, but the depth chart behind him is so muddled that it seems like a virtual certainty that Dallas will end up making some big-name additions.

With Trey Lance no longer in town and Cooper Rush having bolted to join the Baltimore Ravens, Dallas has said in the past that they intend to draft a player in this class. Rather than picking a player in the weak 2025 quarterback class, Jerry Jones could try to pilfer someone from the 2024 collection via trade.

New England Patriots quarterback Joe Milton completed 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards and one touchdown while running for another in a Week 18 game against the Buffalo Bills. With Drake Maye locked in as the franchise quarterback, Milton may end up getting shopped around the league to teams like Dallas.

The Cowboys were linked to a Milton trade by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, with a third-round pick reportedly emerging as the asking price. for his services. This trade would be an incredibly backward way to build a quarterback room, as Dallas would be trading a third-round pick for a sixth-rounder from last year after one good game.

Cowboys would be foolish to trade for Patriots QB Joe Milton

Milton can throw the ball through a barn door, but he usually can’t hit a barn door. He put up good stats in his limited professional action, but that Week 18 game came against a Bills team that was trying not to get too burnt out before the playoffs and was clearly at half speed.

Unless Dallas had a third-round grade on Milton last year, which would be highly unlikely given how up-and-down his time with Tennessee was, this would be a poor allocation of resources. Mid-round quarterbacks like Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel or Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard might be a better use of a draft pick.

NFL history is littered with stories of backup quarterbacks getting big contracts after one or two good games. Rob Johnson got $25 million from the Bills after one solid start with the Jaguars. Matt Flynn parlayed a similar final week outburst into a big Seahawks contract and lost his job immediately.

As bad as this trade may seem, we are dealing with the executive who traded a fourth-round pick for Jonathan Mingo. There’s a chance that Dallas at least picks up the phone and asks about Milton.