Joe Milton’s time in New England was brief enough to feel unfinished, like a chapter that ended mid-sentence. One season. One start. A handful of practices that lingered in memory longer than the box scores ever could.
Now, months after his quiet exit from Forborough, the former Patriots quarterback has finally explained why his stay felt less like an opportunity and more like a waiting room.
Joe Milton Felt Disrespected After Patriots Made Surprising Decision
On Monday’s episode of WEEI’s Radio Row, Milton talked about the disconnect he felt between what he showed on the field and how the organization ultimately treated him. The result, he said, was a lingering sense of disrespect, not loud or dramatic, but persistent enough to push him toward the door.
Milton entered the 2024 season as the Patriots’ emergency third quarterback, sitting behind veteran Jacoby Brissett and first-round rookie Drake Maye. When New England struggled early, and Maye was uprooted to the starting job in Week 6, Milton assumed the depth chart would adjust accordingly.
Nevertheless, despite Brissett losing the starting role, he remained the No. 2 quarterback. Milton stayed third. On paper, nothing changed. In practice, everything had.
“It’s just me and Drake the only ones practicing,” Milton said, “but he’s still the two.”
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Brissett, the then backup, wasn’t taking meaningful reps. Milton was. Yet when game day came, Milton remained the emergency option, present, prepared, and perpetually overlooked.
“I just felt disrespected,” he said.
The frustration wasn’t rooted in ego as much as effort. Milton insisted his practices mirrored his play style: fast, physical, fearless. He recalled one particular throw, a deep ball over cornerback Christian Gonzalez, that felt like proof, suspended in the air.
“I got to the point where I threw a deep ball to my left over (Christian Gonzalez). And while the ball was in the air, I turned around, just looking at (Jerod) Mayo, Eliot (Wolf) was right there, and they couldn’t do nothing but just look at the ball. The ball got completed. He scored. And they just shook their heads.”
But even moments like that didn’t shift his standing. The chance never came until the very last game of the season, when circumstances finally cracked the door open. Against a Buffalo Bills team resting its starters in the 2024 finale, Milton made the lone start of his Patriots career.
He threw for 241 yards and a touchdown, ran for another score, and helped New England to a 23-16 win, for which he received a score of 81.8 on PFSN’s QBi. It was a glimpse of what might have been, and in hindsight, a goodbye.
By the offseason, Milton knew he couldn’t stay. He went to his agency and asked out, explaining that he no longer felt like a developing quarterback, but a placeholder.
In April last year, the Patriots traded Milton and a seventh-round pick to the Dallas Cowboys for a fifth-round selection. He landed behind Dak Prescott, appeared in four games, completed 62.5% of his passes for 183 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions. The numbers were modest, but the reset mattered, as Milton describes his situation with the Cowboys as a good one.