Jerry Jones: I ‘have to pinch myself’ that Cowboys were able to get Joe Milton from Patriots
"I’m just excited that we had a chance to get him."
Joe Milton has loved his first few months with the Cowboys, and the team is reciprocating that feeling.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones still can’t believe that his team was able to get Milton from the Patriots in a trade back in April.
“I really have to pinch myself that we got him after the last game that he had up there, starting there for New England,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan’s Kristi Scales on Saturday. “I’m just excited that we had a chance to get him. And he hasn’t disappointed. He’s actually — we’re just more and more encouraged by what we’re seeing.”
Jones’s comment about Milton preceded the quarterback’s preseason debut with Dallas, which didn’t go too well. Milton completed 17 of 29 passes for 143 yards, one touchdown, and one interception to go with a 68.6 passer rating and 22 rushing yards in the Cowboys’ 31-21 loss to the Rams. A couple of his overthrows made the rounds on social media.
The second-year quarterback played all but one drive in Dallas’ loss, leading the Cowboys to two touchdown drives.
Still, appears Milton’s underwhelming showing on Saturday won’t upset the Cowboys too much. He received high marks from Dak Prescott and others in the opening weeks of training camp, leading him to be listed as Dallas’ second-string quarterback entering Saturday’s preseason opener. He also made an impressive 75-yard touchdown pass in practice this past week.
As Milton appears to have easily gotten the Cowboys’ primary backup quarterback job, questions over his role with the Patriots led to him getting traded in April. New England moved Milton, along with a sixth-round pick, to Dallas for a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft after signing Josh Dobbs to back up Drake Maye.
The Patriots’ decision to go with Dobbs as their primary backup to Maye was a surprise to some, considering how well Milton played in his only action as a rookie in 2024. He threw for 241 yards and a touchdown to go with a rushing score in their Week 18 win over the Bills.
But Milton, who was the Patriots’ third-string quarterback for nearly the entire 2024 season, seemed happy to leave New England as he’s taken a couple of jabs at his old team. He called his trade to the Dallas a “blessing” in May for four reasons: getting the chance to learn from Prescott and playing in the heat, a dome, and for “America’s Team.”
At the start of Cowboys training camp, Milton said Prescott has helped him in ways that the Patriots didn’t.
“Dak is a great leader,” Milton told reporters in July. “All respect to him. He literally goes out of his way to help me, no matter if the coach is talking in the meeting, he literally goes out of his way to help.
“I’ve been in another building. I know how that goes. It’s just very different over here.”
Milton has favorably compared the Cowboys’ offense under head coach Brian Schottenheimer to the scheme he played under former Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt on multiple occasions.
“At the Patriots, it was more everybody telling everybody what they’re doing based off the play, how long the play call was, the play call’s longer,” Milton said in July. “Over here, it pretty much goes back to my high school and college days, one word is a whole concept. I think learning the offense early like that, and coming in new to an offense, it’s pretty good to have that type of system.”
Milton will likely continue to get a decent amount of playing time for the Cowboys for the rest of the preseason as Dallas is load managing Prescott following his season-ending hamstring injury in 2024. The Cowboys host the Ravens on Saturday before taking on the Falcons in their preseason finale a week later.
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