Ex-Jets Scout to Patriots: Trade Starter Drake Maye, Joe Milton Deal Was ‘Wrong’

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Joe Milton III (l) and Drake Maye (r)

The New England Patriots created the first controversy of the Mike Vrabel era, when the team traded practice squad quarterback Joe Milton III to the Dallas Cowboys for a fifth-round draft pick. The 25-year-old Milton had been the center of trade rumors ever since his eye-opening, one-off performance in Week 18 of the 2024 season against the Buffalo Bills.

But what was the urgency to unload Milton, and for nothing more than a fifth-rounder? In fact, the Patriots threw in a seventh-round draft pick of their own as incentive for Dallas to take on Milton, whose quarterbacks coach at Tennessee called him “physically the most talented quarterback I’ve been around, and I’ve been around a lot of guys that have been drafted really high.”

One New England media personality who has covered the Patriots for two decades said that Milton displayed a sense of “entitlement,” in believing — according to some reports — that he should be the Patriots starting QB, not 2024 No. 3 overall draft pick Drake Maye.

Another, Ben Volin of The Boston Globe, wrote that the Patriots traded away the athletically gifted Milton “to placate Maye, their young franchise quarterback.”

Maye Reportedly Sulked After Milton’s Week 18 Show

“A league source said last month at the NFL Combine that Maye’s family was not thrilled when Milton was drafted,” Volin wrote. “Maye also didn’t look too pleased about giving up the Week 18 game to Milton, leaving the locker room without speaking to reporters and then skipping locker room clean-out day.”

If Milton craves a starting job, he is not going to find one in Dallas where nine-year veteran Dak Prescott signed a new, four-year, $240 million contract extension prior to last season.

According to Ananta Car of the Essentially Sports site, “the Cowboys didn’t tra͏de for M͏il͏ton thi͏nking he’d ͏b͏e their franchise QB. ͏T͏hey made͏ this ͏m͏ove bec͏ause backup ͏Cooper Rush͏ signed with the ͏Ravens, an͏d it was time to get someone younger be͏hind Pr͏e͏scott.͏”

Now, a former pro scout for the New York Jets says not only should the Patriots not have traded Milton — they should have dealt away Maye.

“The Patriots traded the wrong quarterback,” declared Daniel Kelly, who scouted for the Jets over a four-year period in the late 1990s, and now publishes the NFL Draft projection site First Round Mock.

“They could have landed a BIG draft haul for Drake Maye that could’ve better enabled them to get in position to contend with the Bills providing they made the right picks. This is a TEAM sport and they are coming off a 4-13 season — they are not one or two players away from competing in the AFC East anytime soon,” Kelly continued.

“The Patriots missed a golden opportunity here. They could’ve had the haul and built the roster around Joe Milton III who showed what he was capable of in the season finale.”

Milton Compares Favorably to Colts’ First-Round QB Pick

Kelly thinks highly of Milton, writing in his 2024 draft evaluation — before the Patriots took the Volunteers starter in the sixth round with the 193rd overall pick — “If anyone thinks all Milton can do is throw it a football mile, they’re missing the rest of the picture. He has attributes that translate to what’s been proven to succeed at QB in the NFL (often went through progressions and showed a relatively quick release).”

Milton has been seen on video repeatedly throwing a football more than 80 yards in the air.

“When we do an apples-to-apples comparison between Milton and the Colts’ first-round pick QB Anthony Richardson, it’s interesting. Both played 12 games in their final college season,” Kelly wrote. “Richardson had 176 completions out of 327 attempts (53.8 percent) with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Milton had 229 completions out of 354 attempts (64.7 percent) with 20 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Richardson was the No. 4 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Milton’s arm strength makes Richardson look like a Happy Meal toy.”

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin