With Jalen Hurts out this week due to a blood clotThe Philadelphia Eagles ended up stealing a player from the Dallas Cowboys. The Eagles will cut Joe Milton from the Cowboys’ practice squad, according to multiple reports. Under NFL rules, if you cut a player from another team’s practice squad, that player must be placed on your 53-man roster, so Milton will not be a practice squad player in Philadelphia; it will be on the current list.
Eagles quarterback situation
With the addition of Milton, that means the Eagles will have three quarterbacks before Sunday’s game against Carolina. Milton will join Tanner McKee and rookie Cole Payton. The injuries have already been ruled out due to blood clot in his calf and we don’t know when he will be able to return to the field.
For Sunday, the Eagles will put back the I’m starting my job at McKeebut clearly they weren’t comfortable with just a rookie behind him, which is why they went out and added Milton. There was speculation that the Eagles might look to bring Andy Dalton back to Philadelphia, but in the end the team decided to go with Milton.
The Eagles offense is at its best when a mobile quarterback is under center, and that’s why the decision to add Milton certainly makes sense. Although he has never started a match before, he has some mobility, but he is inexperienced.
Milton is now on his third team in three seasons and he has thrown just 53 passes in that span. He began his career with the Patriots after New England selected him in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft. After a year behind Drake Maye (and Jacoby Brissett), he was traded to the Cowboys in April 2025. During the 2025 season, he appeared in four different games while supporting Dak Prescott.
During the 2026 offseason, the Cowboys completed a trade for Sam Howell, and he ended up beating out Milton for the backup QB job. The Cowboys ended up cutting Milton after the preseason in a move that seemed to blindside the 26-year-old QB.
“It was shocking. But that’s life. You have to be able to live with it and fight back when the time comes,” Milton said at the time. “I’m still the best quarterback in my eyes. It is what it is. It’s something you have to live with and take it on the chin.”
The Cowboys signed Milton to their practice squad and that’s where he spent the last five weeks until the Eagles made a move Friday.
What this could mean for Jalen Hurts
The fact that the Eagles are adding a quarterback likely means Hurts will be out for more than one game. If they thought he would only be out for a week, they probably would have been comfortable with Payton as a one-game backup, but if Hurts is going to miss an extended period of time, then it certainly makes sense to add another quarterback, which Philly ended up doing.
The Eagles did not provide details on the nature of the clot Hurts is dealing with, but ESPN reported that he would be out indefinitely “until this situation is resolved.” At this point, it seems almost a given that the Eagles will eventually put Hurts on injured reserve. If they don’t go that route, that means they would have to have four quarterbacks on their 53-man roster, which wouldn’t make sense for a team that currently has 24 players on its injury report.
Plus, if the Eagles put him on IR now, that would give Hurts five weeks to heal. After facing the Panthers this week, the Eagles will play three divisional games with the Cowboys (Week 7), Commanders (Week 8) and Giants (Week 9) before getting a bye in Week 10. So putting Hurts on IR would give him more than a month to recover. The Eagles’ first game after their bye is November 22 against the Steelers.
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