BREAKING: Patriots Trade QB Joe Milton III to Cowboys for Draft Picks

The New England Patriots were able to move Joe Milton III this week, trading the young quarterback to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick. The Patriots also sent a seventh-rounder to the Cowboys as part of the deal.

That New England jettisoned Milton is not surprising. After all, we had been hearing rampant trade speculation about the former sixth-round pick ever since his strong showing against the Buffalo Bills in the Pats' Week 18 win, which knocked them out of the number one slot in the NFL Draft).

Drake Maye is clearly the future for the Patriots under center, so Milton was never going to get the chance to start. And while he appeared to be represent a terrific backup option, New England knew that wasn't going to be the case for too much longer.

“People who worked with Milton last season didn’t believe he would be an ideal backup quarterback for Drake Maye,” Doug Kyed of The Boston Herald reported on X. “Milton sees himself as a potential starter and doesn’t have the league experience of a Jacoby Brissett or Joshua Dobbs. I don’t think Milton would have created issues, but it’s a new regime, and the Patriots were able to flip him for a higher pick.”

Milton won't be starting in Dallas right off the bat, either, as Dak Prescott definitely has that job on lock for now. However, unlike Maye, Prescott is in his 30s, and he didn't exactly look great before going down with a brutal season-ending hamstring injury in 2024.

At the very least, the 25-year-old will have a better chance of eventually taking the reins for the Cowboys, and in the meantime, he can learn under a veteran quarterback in Prescott.

We'll see if Milton can ultimately work his way up into becoming a full-time starter in the relatively near future, whether that's in Dallas or someplace else.