Cowboys' Brian Schottenheimer feels Dallas 'has to trust' Joe Milton, 'believes' Dallas has trustworthy QB2

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys knew they were getting a young backup quarterback that needed development when they acquired Joe Milton in a trade from the New England Patriots this offseason.

After two preseason games, at the Los Angeles Rams and at home against the Baltimore Ravens, Milton has demonstrated he has further to go in his development than perhaps previously thought. Slow starts against both the Rams and the Ravens have been a common theme for Milton and Dallas' preseason offense. Both starts involved deep ball, end zone interceptions into double coverage, and Milton himself grading himself somewhere between a D and a D- for his own performance. He arguably took a step back Saturday night in Dallas' 31-13 preseason home defeat against the Ravens given he had a week to work on the flaws he displayed in Los Angeles, but instead those same woes -- holding on to the ball too long, taking unwise risks and not readily throwing with anticipation -- seemed perhaps exacerbated. 

Cowboys-Ravens preseason takeaways: Joe Milton remains a project, Dallas' defense made plays vs. Ravens

Garrett Podell

"If it wasn't for the interception, I feel like it would have been a smooth C+, but right now, I still feel like I give myself a D," Milton said postgame Saturday night. "I got to clean my eyes up and just understand if the boundary safety does roll down on that side, just suspect something over the top if it isn't Cover Zero."

Despite a perceivable preseason backslide from Milton, head coach Brian Schottenheimer still believes he has a reliable backup quarterback behind three-time Pro Bowler Dak Prescott. Milton's night was certainly a stark contrast to Cooper Rush, Milton's predecessor with Dallas behind Prescott for most of the last eight seasons. Rush, who started on Saturday for the visiting Ravens in place of All-Pro Lamar Jackson, helped guide the Ravens on four scoring drives with 16 first downs for 273 total yards in the first half. Rush finished his night at the half with 198 yards, a touchdown pass (one yard) and two interceptions on 20 of 30 passing. It was a reminder of the steadiness the Cowboys might be missing in their quarterback room behind Prescott at the moment. 

"I think we have to believe that. I think we do believe that," Schottenheimer said postgame Saturday night. ... "Cooper Rush has played in this league a long time. What he did tonight didn't surprise anyone in the first half. I've seen him do that for the last three years. Joe Milton is in Year 2. So again, I'm not panicked. It's not just them. It's us as coaches, it's the other players. It's all of it."  

* Includes opening drive safety

Milton had two glaring mistakes Saturday night: an opening drive safety and an end zone interception. On the safety, Milton didn't catch the Ravens' pressure coming off the right edge on a third down cornerback blitz. That resulted in a sack and two points for Baltimore. Milton had wide receiver Jonathan Mingo open on the play, but he didn't get the football out in time: he appeared completely blindsided.

"Just looking at Mingo, knowing that he beat the corner, seeing the boundary safety roll down to that side and just knowing that I had a one on one over there with Mingo in that corner, I just trusted Mingo," Milton said. "I just got to fix my eyes and see the post safety rolling over there. ... I just didn't see him [Martin] because there was a bunch over there, and he [Martin] was really between the tight end and a bunch [formation of receivers], so I really just couldn't see him."

"They fooled him a little bit on the safety, on the third down there," Schottenheimer said. "We're trying to get the ball out of his hand fast. They showed down on one side and brought the blitz from the other side and just spooked him. He's got to try to throw the ball away."

The head coach said they had a flat, slant route combination available on that play for Milton to get the ball out of his hands quickly, but Milton didn't make the throw. If the throw truly wasn't available, Schottenheimer would have preferred Milton throw the ball away, so that Dallas could have punted. Both the head coach and the quarterback know that's on Milton.

"The thing I love about Joe is when you talk to him, he's like 'you're right, you're right,'" Schottenheimer said. ... "He was trying to do right and made a call [on the end zone interception]. There's probably a couple other things he could have done differently."

However, Schottenheimer was also quick to point out Dallas' run game, which combined for 51 yards rushing on 20 carries (a 2.6 yards per carry average), didn't do Milton any favors. Some early key drops by both fullback Hunter Luepke and wide receiver Jalen Cropper also either directly highlighted or at least alluded to as well. 

"It wasn't just Joe. We've got to be able to run the ball better. We've got to take care of the football. He throws the ball with a lot of tempo," Schottenheimer said. "I thought Hunter had a ball he could have made a catch on the over [route]. And again, you hit a couple of those things, and it gets you going. Sometimes, you need somebody to help you make a play, and I don't think we did a good job of that. I just told the guys, I said, "Hey, the bottom line is this. We're not going to say that this is just a preseason game. We're not going to just say, 'Oh, we're fine.' We're going to look at it.' The fact that we really lost both halves. That's something we have to get corrected. There's too many good football players, there's too many good coaches for us to perform the way we did tonight." 

"I feel like I don't have to decide anything today," Schottenheimer said. "I'm going to keep letting these guys practice. I just told the guys to get ready because a couple of these practices are going to be really physical. All of these position battles, we don't have to decide anything now. Like with the receivers, we're trying to get a good look at a couple of those guys that were fighting for those spots, and I thought a couple of guys stepped up and did a nice job. I thought [Ryan] Flournoy had a couple nice catches. [Jonathan] Mingo made a great catch down the boundary. I felt we kind of shot ourselves in the foot with penalties when we got some momentum. We have to be cleaner." 

Sure, it's natural as a Cowboys fan to panic about what would happen to Dallas if Prescott, who suffered significant, season-ending injuries in both 2020 (fractured ankle) and 2024 (torn hamstring), went down again in 2025. That just won't be Schottenheimer's posture about his options at backup quarterback between Milton and veteran Will Grier. Grier also failed to launch Saturday night: he threw for 33 yards on one of five passing and a fumble lost. Four plays into Grier's tenure under center, he was strip-sacked by Ravens undrafted rookie linebacker Jay Higgins for Dallas' second giveaway of the game. Whether Schottenheimer should or shouldn't be worried is debatable, but what isn't is his insistence on not doing so. 

"It's preseason. We're not going to panic, and we're not pushing the panic button, we're pushing the work button, and that's what we're going to do," Schottenheimer said. "We'll get in tomorrow and watch the film,  make corrections. We'll see some guys that probably separated themselves from an evaluation process, which is great for them, and we'll start to build the week's plan."