Joe Milton’s elite athleticism clashes with Sam Howell’s starting experience as Dallas evaluates which signal-caller possesses the poise to lead the offense if Dak Prescott goes down.
There are a lot of position battles to watch for at The Star as the Dallas Cowboys move from OTAs to Tuesday's mandatory minicamp.
And one is the backup quarterback role.
Joe Milton and Sam Howell. That's the matchup, and it is one that fascinates me as we look to see what sort of player Brian Schottenheimer wants behind Dak Prescott.
Milton took second-team reps in OTAs Week 1, and by all accounts, looked fine, with Howell not seeing much action. Again, it's OTAs, so take that with a grain of salt.
But in OTAs Week 2? It was Howell's turn.
Howell has proven to be an okay starter in the league, so he does have skins on the wall there, whereas Milton has all of the athletic traits, but as far as playing the quarterback position, his lack of experience means he leaves something to be desired.
So how things play out over the next couple of days will be interesting, because if Milton jumps back up and continues to get second-team reps, that might tell us what to expect once training camp begins.
And for our own Mike Fisher, he'll be intently watching Sam and Joe at The Star.
“The backup quarterback, as far as I'm concerned, is your 12th starter,” Fish said. “You can plug this guy in if he gets hurt. A couple times a year, almost always at least, you're going to need a backup quarterback that can bus drive you to a win. Maybe more than that. Who is that guy? Do they have that guy? Joe Milton last week got the second-team snaps.
"Now, is that because he's the incumbent? Is it because it was his turn? Is it going to be Sam's turn this week? This could be a competition, maybe even should be a competition that goes all the way through preseason games because you need to see it under the lights, right?”
Minicamp likely won't give us a definitive tell on which way Dallas is leaning; instead, how practices shape up in Oxnard and even the preseason games figure to be the final tests.
We know what Milton can do from an athletic standpoint, and Howell? While he doesn't have the athletic traits of Joe, you could argue plays the position better right now.
Could that change over the course of the next month? Of course. But Milton clearly has the higher ceiling, but as Fish states, you need a competent bus driver if Dak goes down.
Is that Joe? Or is it Sam?
