Sam Howell is the Dallas Cowboys' backup quarterback. That much is settled. What comes next for Joe Milton III is a roster-construction problem that still runs through The Star.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer said Tuesday at The Star that the staff debated the No. 2 job into Monday afternoon before waiving Milton as the corresponding move for claiming running back Emari Demercado from Kansas City. Dallas had kept three quarterbacks on the initial 53-man roster a day earlier. Schottenheimer made clear the club will not carry a third quarterback on the active roster going forward.
"I think when we looked at the whole body of work, we just felt like Sam had done a little bit more in terms of executing the offense in certain areas," Schottenheimer said, according to DallasCowboys.com. He called it a "very, very hard decision" and said the staff wanted Milton back on the practice squad "absolutely" if he cleared waivers.
Consistency over the splash play
Milton cleared those waivers Tuesday with no claims by the 3 p.m. CT deadline, Dallas Sports Journal reported, leaving him a free agent eligible to rejoin Dallas on the practice squad. The Cowboys signed 13 practice-squad players Monday from their own cutdown list and announced offensive tackle Wanya Morris and defensive tackle Elijah Garcia on Tuesday.
Two of the 16 standard practice-squad spots remained open before any Milton deal, with defensive lineman Adedayo Odeleye's International Player Pathway exemption creating a 17th slot that does not count against the standard total.
Schottenheimer framed the Howell-Milton evaluation as a season-long process rather than a preseason box score. Howell completed 27 of 40 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns with one interception across the preseason and added a rushing score. Milton went 29 of 43 for 378 yards and three touchdowns without an interception and also ran for a score.
Howell started the opener at Seattle; Milton started the next two games, including the Aug. 28 finale against New Orleans at AT&T Stadium.
"The discipline of this process is don't get caught up in a big throw here, a big play there, a turnover here, a sack there," Schottenheimer said, per Dallas Sports Journal. "It's throughout the whole process."
He said the job was "very hotly debated" from April through Monday and that Howell's starting experience - Schottenheimer cited "over 20 starts in the league" - "played a part in it, but that was not the only reason."
Howell, signed March 10 to a one-year deal worth $2.5 million guaranteed, has 18 career starts, all with Washington, and has thrown for 4,139 yards and 22 touchdowns in 20 career games. Schottenheimer praised his grasp of the playbook and field vision after arriving behind Prescott and Milton in system familiarity.
