Joe Milton III is learning his second NFL offense in as many seasons. And it appears he’s a much bigger fan of his current offense than his previous one.
Milton has been participating in the Dallas Cowboys’ organized activities this week, about a month and a half after the New England Patriots surprisingly traded the second-year quarterback and a 2025 seventh-round draft pick to Dallas in return for a 2025 fifth-round pick.
While Milton is the backup to entrenched starter Dak Prescott, he’s been getting plenty of reps at OTAs and has a strong first impression of the Cowboys’ offense — especially when compared to the Patriots’ 2024 operation.
“It’s way different,” Milton told The Athletic’s Jon Machota about the Cowboys’ offensive language in relation to New England’s.
“This offense here brings me back more to my college days. My last offense was more everybody get tagged on which routes. This offense here is more fast and for sure explosive.”
Milton certainly isn’t wrong. New England had one of the NFL’s least explosive offenses in 2024, ranking 28th in both EPA per play and Yards After Catch as a team. Their No. 1 wide receiver, DeMario Douglas, ranked 61st in the NFL with 621 receiving yards, while their top running back, Rhamondre Stevenson, ranked 26th with 801 rushing yards.
In Dallas, Milton is working with an offense whose top two pass-catchers — CeeDee Lamb (1,194 yards) and the recently-acquired George Pickens (900 yards) — combined for more yards than the entire Patriots receiving corps (1,178 yards) last season.
Milton’s comments also suggest the Cowboys’ playbook is more advanced than what New England ran under one-and-done offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt in 2024. Milton thrived in his lone start for the Patriots last season, completing 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards with two total touchdowns (one passing, one receiving) in an ill-fated Week 18 win over the Buffalo Bills that cost them the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
“I went in there and did what the play-caller and head coach wanted me to do, and that’s win the game,” Milton told Machota about that start. “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.”
Milton seems confident he can carve out a role in Dallas, and that confidence in his abilities may have led in part to his exit from New England. As our Phil Perry explained in early April, the timing of the team’s decision to trade Milton just before voluntary workouts in April and roll with veteran Joshua Dobbs as Drake Maye’s backup wasn’t a coincidence.
“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.
“… 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.”
If Milton sees more of an opportunity to eventually take over for Prescott in Dallas and Maye feels more freedom to be New England’s franchise quarterback, perhaps the deal was a win-win for both sides.
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