With Hurts out indefinitely and set to miss Sunday against Carolina, Philadelphia signed the big-armed backup off its NFC East rival’s practice squad on Friday.
By The Beat Writer — CelebnMusic247
PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles did not just add a quarterback on Friday, October 16. They took one from Dallas.
Philadelphia is signing Joe Milton III off the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad, NFL Network reported on Friday, according to Reuters. USA Today, citing multiple reports, said the move comes after starter Jalen Hurts was shut down following a follow-up ultrasound.
Hurts will miss Sunday’s home game against the Carolina Panthers after being diagnosed Thursday with a superficial blood clot in his calf, per Reuters. According to USA Today, the Eagles said Hurts is believed to have suffered the injury during the team’s October 4 game against the Los Angeles Rams. He was cleared to play in Philadelphia’s October 11 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, but a follow-up ultrasound showed movement in the small clot, leading the team to shut him down indefinitely, USA Today reported.
That makes this more than a one-week depth signing. There is no return date in either report, and Philadelphia’s room was thin behind Hurts: only backup Tanner McKee and rookie Cole Payton, according to USA Today.
McKee will start Sunday as the Eagles, at 2-3, try to snap a three-game losing streak, per Reuters. Reuters described McKee as a fourth-year backup and a sixth-round pick in 2023 who will make just the third start of his career. USA Today added that the 26-year-old started the final regular-season game in each of the past two years and went 1-1 in those appearances. Payton was Philadelphia’s fifth-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, according to USA Today.
Milton, 26, now becomes the insurance policy — and potentially more if McKee struggles or Hurts lands on injured reserve, a possibility USA Today raised in assessing his fit. Under NFL rules, a player signed off another team’s practice squad must be placed on the 53-man roster, according to both Reuters and USA Today.
Fans know Milton’s name for a reason: the arm. He has never started an NFL regular-season game and has appeared in five career games, per USA Today, but his flashes have traveled. Milton was a sixth-round pick by New England in 2024, according to Reuters. In his one game for the Patriots that season, he completed 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards and one touchdown and also rushed for a score in a Week 18 win over Buffalo, per Reuters.
Dallas acquired him from New England in April 2025 in exchange for a fifth-round pick, at the start of what became his second season with the Cowboys, according to USA Today. In four appearances off the Dallas bench in 2025, he completed 15 of 24 passes for 183 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, and he has not played a snap in 2026, per Reuters.
His most recent argument came in August. USA Today reported Milton completed more than 67 percent of his passes over three 2026 exhibition games for Dallas, for 378 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, including an August 22 start against Arizona in which he went 9 of 13 for 179 yards and accounted for three touchdowns.
Philadelphia had already released 38-year-old Andy Dalton last week after he threw an interception on his only pass attempt in the Week 3 loss at Chicago, per Reuters.
Milton is not a proven long-term answer, and USA Today noted inconsistency and accuracy concerns have followed him. But for a 2-3 team losing its starter indefinitely, this is a low-risk, high-upside swing — and raiding the Cowboys’ practice squad only sharpens the NFC East edge.
