The state of the backup quarterbacks on the Cowboys will be worth watching.
In just two months, the Cowboys will start their 2025 training camp. Some players are already locked into their roles, but many will be in fights for their place on the depth chart, roster, or practice squad. For backup quarterbacks Will Grier and Joe Milton III, there’s a wide range of possibilities for their eventual landing spots.
Grier and Milton come into this competition from very different places in their careers. Grier is a 30-year-old, sixth-year veteran who’s bounced around the league for a while. He was a third-round pick in 2019 by the Panthers but never found traction there, partially due to a coaching change in 2020. But despite consistently staying employed at the bottom of various rosters and on practice squads, Grier’s last regular-season snap came in his rookie season.
Milton, a sixth-round pick just last year by New England, has obviously spent much less time in the league. But his 61 snaps from the one game he appeared in last season aren’t much less than Grier’s 87 from 2019. So while Grier does have valuable experience from many more training camps, preseasons, and other learning opportunities than Milton, they’re fairly even on actual real-game work.
While Grier does have experience with the Cowboys from 2021-2022, that was before Brian Schottenheimer’s arrival as offensive coordinator. So even there, his experience edge is limited. Grier was on the practice squad for the last two months of 2024, but that has minimal value now that Schottenheimer is head coach and nearly all of the assistants have changed.
A more meaningful difference between them is Dallas’ level of investment. Unsurprisingly, they were able to retain Grier this offseason with the league minimum. But after Milton’s bright flash in the 2024 season finale, the Cowboys sent one of their fifth-round picks this year to New England for the player and a seventh. That may not sound like much on the surface, but Dallas hasn’t typically used much draft capital on the quarterback position. They essentially made Milton one of their fifth-round picks this year, which is the most they’ve invested since making Dak Prescott a fourth-round pick in 2016.
Another key difference is playing style and how that fits into what Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams are looking to do offensively. Grier is your prototypical West Coast QB, a scrambler who can throw well on the run but without a big arm. Milton has all the arm strength you could want and plenty of athleticism to boot, but has always been knocked for his lack of accuracy. That looked better in his one game last year for New England, but it was a small sample size in a glorified preseason game during Week 18.
If the Cowboys offense is about to get more focused on the run and play-action, which the coaching changes and the drafting of G Tyler Booker indicate, then how these QBs do at throwing on the move will be a major factor in the competition. But more than anything, as we saw from Cooper Rush over the last four years, who can just grab his helmet and keep the offense moving when called upon? It’s one thing to go into a game knowing you’re starting, but who can keep his head on straight when QB1 just got helped off the field? That’s arguably the most important factor in who wins the backup job.
Right now, it feels pretty even between Will Grier and Joe Milton. Grier has the experience edge, both in total and with the team, while Milton’s athleticism and upside make him the better investment. And if another year of development has improved his accuracy and honed other skills, Milton can mitigate that experience gap easily. This will be one of the bubble battles to watch for training camp and the preseason.
