It may only be the second week of June, but we are learning a lot about where certain Dallas Cowboys players stand in Phase 3 of the offseason program.
On top of revealing winners and losers, OTAs have shed light on various position battles. Apparently, backup quarterback belongs in that conversation.
Even though Joe Milton won the job last summer, he's currently splitting reps with veteran Sam Howell, whom Dallas inked to a one-year, $2.5 million contract early in free agency. The Cowboys have more invested in Milton, but he and Howell are seemingly on equal footing.
"... Both doing good, we’re rotating them evenly," Brian Schottenheimer said about Milton and Howell. "The first week was Joe getting most of the twos and Sam mixing in. This week it’s the other way around, but it’s going to be a fun competition. I love how they are pushing each other to be great. We’re always trying to raise the level and improve the room any chance we get.”
Dallas Cowboys QB Joe Milton is battling Sam Howell for the backup job
This was the expectation after the Cowboys signed Howell. Granted, they needed another quarterback after releasing longtime third-stringer Will Grier, but they added Howell on the second day of the legal tampering period.
For a team that typically sits out the first wave of free agency, it spoke volumes that Dallas moved quickly to bring him aboard. If Schottenheimer's staff had complete confidence in Milton, there's a good chance they would have waited longer to add another quarterback.
While Milton and Grier battled for QB2 last offseason, Milton, despite being extremely raw, wasn't really challenged. The 30-year-old Grier had not (and still hasn't) appeared in an NFL game since his rookie year in 2019. It's no surprise that Milton came out on top.
Howell brings a much different pedigree to the battleground.
A former projected first-round pick, Howell slid to the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He started all 17 games during Washington's 2023 campaign.
Despite the team's 4-13 record, Howell flashed enough talent to carve out a career as a backup with spot-starting upside, completing 63.4 percent of his passes for 231.2 yards per game and 21 touchdowns to a league-high 21 interceptions. He's a gunslinger who plays with reckless abandon, but he's got a big arm and can extend plays with his legs.
The Cowboys would like Milton to win the job -- even though they'd never say that publicly -- but Howell is not going to make it easy. Any notion that Milton had a clear runway to the QB2 has vanished.
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