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Patriots insider details ‘smoking gun’ that explained Joe Milton trade
"It was more about Milton's comfort level and self-perception relative to Maye."
After months of speculation, the Patriots made the call to trade second-year QB Joe Milton III to the Dallas Cowboys for a fifth-round pick last week.
Given Drake Maye’s emergence as a potential franchise QB last season and the offseason signing of veteran signal-caller Joshua Dobbs, Milton looked like the odd man out on the depth chart, even with his impressive performance in New England’s Week 18 win over the Bills.
But, the decision to trade Milton ahead of the team’s voluntary offseason workout program raised a few eyebrows.
ESPN’s Mike Reiss noted on Sunday that it “wasn’t a coincidence” that the team dealt Milton before a majority of the roster reconvened in Foxborough this week, while Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer added on 98.5 The Sports Hub that the team wanted to “clear the decks” for Maye entering the offseason by moving Milton.
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Appearing on NBC Sports Boston’s Arbella Early Edition Tuesday, Patriots insider Phil Perry stressed that the timing of the Milton trade telegraphed New England’s line of thinking when it came to reshuffling its QB corps.
“I think based on what we know, it’s more along the lines of, ‘What kinds of people do you want in your locker room? What kinds of people do you want in your quarterback room?'” Perry said. “Because it doesn’t have to be an either/or.
“You could have another young player in the room — and it wouldn’t surprise me if they drafted somebody else on Day 3 this year to add another potentially talented quarterback to that quarterback room and still keep Josh Dobbs.”
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For Perry, Milton’s desire to compete with Maye for a starting role and the friction that could have presented itself might have not been worth the hassle for the Patriots.
“Josh Dobbs and Joe Milton weren’t necessarily fighting for a roster spot,” Perry said. “Maybe at the end of training camp we would be saying that, but you could keep both. So to frame it as, ‘Well, it’s better to have the mentor than the younger player,’ that might be true — and I think it is true — but you don’t have to cut the other guy before the offseason program even starts.
“So to me, the smoking gun is the timing of this, and the swiftness and just the firmness of the decision, which is, ‘We’re just not gonna deal with people walking around talking about themselves like they should be the starting quarterback when we have a young player that we believe in.’ That, to me, is really more the issue.”
Dealing Milton because of his desire to challenge Maye for the QB1 spot would seem to be an ill-advised move for a Patriots organization ideally trying to foster competition among a rebuilding roster.
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But, Tom E. Curran added on Early Addition that Milton’s vocal sentiment about where he should sit on the depth chart prompted New England to make a move.
“From what we understood, it was more about Milton’s comfort level and self-perception relative to Maye,” Curran said.
“He felt that as an older player than Drake Maye [Milton is three years older], he didn’t think that the disparity was that great between the two individuals. And he felt because of the final game of the season, it seems, that, ‘Hey man, maybe I should be getting a crack here.'”
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