The Dallas Cowboys landed pin high on the green Thursday morning when they traded a fifth-round pick to the New England Patriots to acquire quarterback Joe Milton. Dallas also received a seventh-round pick in return.
Shockingly to many of us, the Cowboys have spent this offseason addressing many of their positions of need ahead of the NFL Draft. This is shocking because they did the direct opposite of that a year ago, and several times in offseasons prior.
You may or may not like this or that move. Ultimately there is no question that at the very least, the quantity of moves that Dallas has made is significantly higher than in years past and the Joe Milton trade in particular seems to be garnering universal approval.
As if the trade couldn’t get any better, it was reported shortly after it happened by Jordan Schultz that Milton had several suitors before ultimately landing with the Cowboys. According to him the Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers were also in on the discussion.
My understanding is since Joe Milton became available at the start of the offseason, teams that showed interest included the Raiders, Eagles, Giants, Steelers and the Cowboys.
The #Patriots had a better offer for Milton but chose to send him where he wanted out of respect for… https://t.co/kNDFPA4yem pic.twitter.com/iHKhmhRsCv
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) April 3, 2025
What’s more is that according to Schultz, the Patriots had a better offer for Milton on the table but chose to trade him where he preferred out of respect to him. That is nice, but it makes you wonder what else everyone was willing to part with or at least what the more premium offer was.
As far as the teams mentioned the Raiders and Giants landed new starters this offseason in Geno Smith and Russell Wilson, respectively. The latter also signed Jameis Winston as a backup option, maybe that is the role they wanted Milton to play (guessing a bit).
The Steelers are the likely landing spot for Aaron Rodgers and perhaps were also interested in Milton in some sort of reserve role. It stands to reason that nobody saw him as a starting option.
Consider that the Eagles actually traded away Kenny Pickett and received Dorian Thompson-Robinson in return. It is fair to wonder if Milton could have filled that role.
Whatever the case is or isn’t, it is nice to see that the Cowboys got a better price than someone else was willing to pay.