Joe Milton III was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles from the Dallas Cowboys practice squad just days before Eagles Super Bowl-winning starter Jalen Hurts learned that his season was over due to a potentially life-threatening health issue. Milton, the New England Patriots sixth-round draft pick in 2024, and who has never started an NFL game, now stands in line to take over the Philadelphia starting quarterback job with only the Eagles’ one 2023 sixth-rounder, Tanner McKee, in his way.
Hurts took a cleat to the calf in the Eagles’ Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. With the Eagles set to play an international game in the United Kingdom, specialists in London diagnosed a superficial vein thrombosis. But Hurts nonetheless started against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, according to CBS Sports. Subsequent testing after that game found a deep vein thrombosis and blood clots in both lungs.
The Eagles and Hurts’ agent, Nicole Lynn, announced the diagnosis in a joint statement. Hurts is clinically stable, and doctors expect a full recovery with no long-term effects.
“Jalen’s prognosis is very good, and we expect a full recovery,” the statement said, as quoted by CBS Sports. Blood thinners are the entire treatment. Until he comes off them, a stretch reportedly lasting about three months, Hurts cannot take part in any contact activity, football included. His season is effectively over.
Joe Milton III’s Path From the Patriots to Dallas
Milton, 26, played at Michigan from 2018 to 2020 before transferring to Tennessee. In 2023, his one full season as the Volunteers’ starter, he completed 64.7 percent of his passes for 2,813 yards and 20 touchdowns.
The Patriots took him in the sixth round, No. 193 overall, in 2024, in the same draft that they used the No. 3 overall pick on Drake Maye, according to NFL.com.
Milton sat behind Maye and Jacoby Brissett until the 2024 finale against the Buffalo Bills, when he got into the game after Maye played one sequence, and proceeded to complete 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown, plus a rushing score, according to NFL.com. The win dropped New England from the No. 1 spot in the 2025 draft order to No. 4.
It remains his only Patriots appearance. They traded him and a seventh-round pick to the Dallas Cowboys that April for a fifth-rounder, according to NFL.com. Dallas needed a backup for Dak Prescott after Cooper Rush departed for Baltimore.
Milton played in four games for Dallas in 2025 without a start, going 15 of 24 for 183 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. This summer the Cowboys brought in Sam Howell, who won the backup job. Dallas cut Milton after the preseason and re-signed him to the practice squad, according to CBS Sports.
“It was shocking. But it’s life,” Milton said, as quoted by CBS Sports.
Why the Philadelphia Eagles Signed Joe Milton III
The Eagles signed him off Dallas’ practice squad on Friday, Oct. 16. NFL rules require any player pulled from another team’s practice squad to land on the 53-man roster, so Milton went straight there.
Philadelphia then had three quarterbacks in McKee, rookie Cole Payton and Milton. The Eagles did not want a rookie as McKee’s only backup once Hurts was ruled out, and they chose Milton over a reunion with veteran Andy Dalton, according to CBS Sports.
McKee made his first start of the season against the Carolina Panthers, throwing for 215 yards and a touchdown in a loss that dropped Philadelphia to 2-4.
Milton has completed 37 of 53 career passes for 424 yards. Philadelphia’s next opponent is a familiar one for Milton. The Eagles face the Cowboys in Week 7.
McKee remains the plan for now, according to USA Today Eagles Wire. But some fans and media have floated a Milton start if the Eagles offense keeps sputtering.
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