The Patriots went into the 2025 offseason with the most cap space available and just as many moves needed to be made to improve the team from the year before. They were armed with a new head coach and staff, determined to make a difference right away, which inevitably put them near the top of the list for the likeliest team to engage in some trade activity before and after the NFL Draft.
For the most part, that didn't happen, and instead, the new regime signed some big-name free agents and assembled an impressive draft class. They did, however, trade their second-year backup quarterback, Joe Milton III, to the Cowboys for a fifth-round pick, which drew mixed reactions from analysts and fans because he impressed in the 2024 season finale.
Although the compensation was widely applauded, since Milton was a sixth-rounder in 2024, there was a lot of disappointment about the Patriots ridding themselves of who appeared to be a great backup quarterback for Drake Maye to work with.
But new details reveal that may not have been the case behind the scenes, at least according to one Boston reporter.
Rumors surrounding Joe Milton III paint the Patriots decision to trade him this offseason in much better light
Because plenty of reports suggested that Milton viewed himself as a starting quarterback despite serving in a backup role during his rookie season, there was a lot of talk about the Patriots moving on from him to give him that opportunity.
Clearly, that wasn't going to happen in New England because Maye was the next franchise player, so trading Milton made sense in the eyes of many, even those who weren't thrilled about the idea.
Once the trade was completed, it seemed like all the dirt on Milton began to filter out, making him out to be a much less fun player to be around than we initially thought. There had been no reported tension or issues in the locker room last year, nor did we see any signs of a problem on the field. But Boston Sports Journal's Greg Bedard said Milton was partly traded because he was just "not a good dude."
He went on to explain that Milton allegedly wasn't pleased with his role as the backup, which makes sense given that he felt worthy of being a starter, and that inevitably led to problems, too.
Now, we don't want to question anyone's reporting necessarily, but based on how Mike Vrabel and Eliot Wolf handled Milton's trade, reportedly turning down better offers to send him to Dallas because that's where he wanted to go, suggests there might be some holes in these rumors.
Why would the Patriots go through all that trouble, including taking a lesser trade, if they just wanted to get Milton off the team? If he were such a problem, wouldn't they have tried to get him to go anywhere as long as someone was offering to take him? It seems highly unlikely they would try to cater to his wishes at all in that situation.
But, according to Bedard, that detail might not be relevant, and the Patriots have cleared the locker room of a potentially problematic player. Whether or not that's entirely true is up in the air, and we'll probably never know the real story. We do know, though, that Maye has the official green light as the starting quarterback moving forward.
