Patriots “Give Away” Joe Milton in Lopsided Trade
Eliot Wolf and Mike Vrabel traded 2nd Year QB Joe Milton and a 2025 7th Round pick #217 to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2025 Compensatory pick #171. This may be a worse trade than the giveaway of Ladd McConkey last year for Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker.
Milton apparently wasn’t happy being a backup for New England, as he likely felt he was better than Drake Maye. He has one game of experience in the NFL, a win against the Bills that were playing their backups and not trying to win. However, he improved dramatically from the raw 6th round selection in 2024. Credit has to be given to Alex Van Pelt, QB Coach TC McCartney, and Ben McAdoo for his improvement.
Where would Joe Milton be drafted in this year’s draft now that teams have been able to see him against real NFL players that had made the Bills roster and not some pre-season camp fodder? And a player that has drastically improved his technical flaws and still retains that high mobility, size and arm strength? Would that be a 5th-round pick and having to throw in your top 7th-round pick? No Way!
Milton has three years of control left on his rookie contract at $1.050M a year. That is a steal for Dallas, and the Patriots should have received more just on the value of his contract alone.
Instead, they trade him to a team that he wants to play for, even though they had at least one offer that was better. Did Milton say something or was that much of a pain in the butt that they had to get rid of him? Why are they doing Milton a solid by trading him to a team he wants rather than a team the team would benefit?
Bottom line here is they struck gold with Milton, drafting and developing him, and got less than a 1 round bump for him!
Awful.
I’m angry at this trade, and Patriots fans should be as well.
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Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.
Brutal but that’s the Pats way!
I can’t afford to expend anger on a game. Disappointment – yes. Being flabbergasted – yes. The least they should have received in this trade was Milton for Dallas’ best 5th round pick of the multiple they had. The Patriots owe Milton nothing other than his salary. They should have taken whatever the best offer was from whatever team if they were so hell bent on getting rid of Milton.
I think the other irritating factor in this deal is the fact the Patriots shouldn’t have had to give up anything other than Milton, yet they also had to throw in a 7th round pick. I get that 7th round selections aren’t necessarily worth much, but it’s also not unusual to see a late-round selection turn out to be a decent player. By giving up that pick, now they won’t even get the opportunity for a coin flip on somebody who could have helped them. That part is definitely disappointing, and it’s the primary issue I have with the deal.… Read more »