Why Patriots reportedly didn’t want to wait longer to trade Joe Milton
Milton was traded from the Patriots to the Cowboys on Thursday.
The Patriots weren’t under any obligation to trade Joe Milton this offseason. The second-year quarterback still had three seasons remaining on his rookie deal, holding a relatively small base salary ($960,000) for the 2025 season.
Yet, the Patriots opted to trade Milton on Thursday. They shipped the backup quarterback to the Cowboys for a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft while also surrendering a seventh-round pick in the process.
The return the Patriots got might seem underwhelming to some, with a handful of analysts criticizing the move and wondering why they didn’t wait to potentially build up Milton’s value even more. However, New England might have a soft deadline in place to trade the quarterback. The timing of the trade “wasn’t a coincidence,” as it’s believed that Mike Vrabel wanted to set the team culture and “dynamic” at each position group when voluntary workouts begin on Monday, ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported in his Sunday notes column.
Additionally, the Patriots wanted to “clear the decks” for Drake Maye entering offseason workouts and Joshua Dobbs indicated to the team that he would only sign with them in March if he was the primary backup, Sports Illustrated‘s Albert Breer reported.
“[The Patriots] said to [Dobbs] in no uncertain terms that, ‘We don’t want competition in the room for Drake right now. What we’re looking for is a resource,'” Breer said on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Hardy.” “They had sort of signaled to him that this was a likelihood, that they would wind up moving on from Joe Milton. So, they had shopped Joe Milton around a bunch.”
While there had been speculation that Milton sought to become a starting quarterback, there hadn’t been any reports that he had asked the team for a trade. But when the Patriots agreed to terms on a deal with Dobbs in March, Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz reported that New England “would like to trade [Milton] to the right situation to continue his development in the NFL.”
New England selected Milton in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, surprisingly adding another quarterback after it drafted Drake Maye with the third overall pick. The drafting of Milton apparently came as a surprise to Maye’s family as well, with his family not feeling “thrilled” when the Patriots selected the Tennessee product last year, The Boston Globe‘s Ben Volin reported Friday.
Milton wasn’t viewed as much of a threat to Maye when the two were rookies in 2024. As Maye quickly ascended to become the team’s starting quarterback by Week 6, Milton spent practically the entire season as the team’s third-string quarterback.
Of course, the Patriots elevated Milton’s role in the final week of the regular season, playing him all but one series in their Week 18 over the Bills. After Milton shined that day (241 passing yards, one passing touchdown, one rushing touchdown), Maye left the Patriots’ locker room without speaking to reporters following that game and did the same when the team cleaned out the locker room the following day, Volin noted.
As the Patriots have turned the page on their quarterback room, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is excited to get working with Maye this week.
“I’m smitten by the young man in terms of just his personality,” McDaniels told reporters on Thursday. We’ve had an opportunity to spend some time that has nothing to do with football with one another, which I think has been great. Very beneficial and productive to just to get to know him.
“So, I think next week and beyond will be super fun for me to really get to know him from a football perspective, start teaching our terminology and language, seeing how he learns best and how he acclimates,” McDaniels added. “But I couldn’t be more excited about the young man that we have.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com