The Patriots selected Milton in the sixth round of this year’s draft.
Ten weeks into his rookie season, quarterback Joe Milton has yet to take the field for the New England Patriots. In fact, he has yet to even find his way onto the team’s game day roster: he was made a healthy scratch for all of the Patriots’ games so far this year, relegated to emergency duty behind Drake Maye and Jacoby Brissett.
While his role is an anonymous one when it comes to his contributions on Sundays, his overall body of work has received praise from the Patriots. Just this week, he was spotting the black jersey indicating recognition as a Practice Player of the Week.
On Friday, head coach Jerod Mayo spoke about Milton and his work behind the scenes. When asked to assess his growth, Mayo claimed that he saw “huge development” out of the 24-year-old so far this season.
“He’s one of those guys that has to steal reps,” Mayo explained. “Drake’s getting a lot of those reps, and he’s running the show team and doing a great job there. We also have a period at the end of practice where it’s just, ‘Call it and go,’ like five or six plays.
“He’s getting better every day, and again — going back to stealing reps — he’s one of the top users of the virtual reality system.”
Following a six-year college career at Michigan and Tennessee, Milton entered the 2024 NFL Draft as an intriguing quarterback prospect. Offering a rare combination of size, athletic ability and arm talent, his ceiling was among the highest in the class. However, his underdeveloped skillset despite his experience forced him to drop to the sixth round.
New England eventually picked him up 193rd overall. With the team already selecting Maye with the third overall selection, and also having veteran Brissett on board as a free agency pickup, Milton’s role was set from the start: he was a developmental depth option.
Seven months in, that is still the case. However, the Patriots can still feel good about their third-string QB: they did not need to call upon him to see playing time yet, and also seem quite pleased with his progress.