Eagles QB Joe Milton says he’s ready for his first NFL start — and benched Tanner McKee is helping his transition
Milton will make his Eagles debut on Sunday and says he has enough of the playbook down to succeed.
Nearly three weeks ago, Joe Milton was preparing for the Dallas Cowboys’ Sunday Night Football matchup against the Green Bay Packers, albeit down the depth chart as the third-string quarterback on the practice squad.
Even with Dak Prescott and former Eagles third-stringer Sam Howell ahead of him, the 26-year-old Milton prepared as if he was on the cusp of being thrust into the huddle at Lambeau Field. After all, you never know what can happen in the NFL, Milton said Thursday.
“I was just pretty much going through the plays, going through the week like I was a starter, or like I was playing, and just being ready,” Milton said. “And that’s what the NFL is about: just being ready when your name is called, and just preparing for those moments.”
It turned out that his name would eventually be called, just not by Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
The Eagles signed Milton off the Cowboys’ practice squad to their active roster on Oct. 16 after they placed Jalen Hurts on injured reserve due to blood clots. The Eagles then turned to Tanner McKee for three starts in place of Hurts, with Milton waiting in the wings alongside rookie Cole Payton.
But after three consecutive losses extended the team’s losing streak to six games, the Eagles benched McKee, their 2023 sixth-rounder out of Stanford, in favor of Milton.
McKee said Sirianni called him on Tuesday with the news, for which he voiced his appreciation. He had not heard the vote of confidence his head coach gave in a news conference on Monday when he said, “Tanner’s our guy,” until after he learned of his benching.
Regardless, McKee expressed a sense of understanding about the decision and a need for personal improvement, all while trying to support Milton in his new role.
“He hasn’t been here the whole time with training camp and some of those plays, and so just talking to him about different reads, different footwork things that we’ve had a little more time on task doing here,” McKee said. “And so it’s been great just communicating with him things that I’ve seen in the past, things that we’ve learned from Jalen or that [offensive coordinator] Sean [Mannion] has communicated in the past, or things that we can reiterate to kind of slow his thinking down, so he can just be free and be able to play like the great athlete he is.”
The past three weeks have been a crash course for Milton in Mannion’s offense. In an interview on Oct. 30, before the change at quarterback, Eagles quarterbacks coach Parks Frazier noted that he spent more time with Milton than his own family since the new quarterback arrived in Philadelphia, as he tried to get him up to speed in the playbook.
Milton, who began his career with the New England Patriots as their 2024 sixth-rounder out of Tennessee, knows what it takes to adapt. He is now on his third organization, his third offense, and his third coaching staff in three years.
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Still, Milton acknowledged that everything is new to him in Mannion’s offense, from the plays to the terminology to the communication. He said the offense reminds him of the West Coast scheme in New England his rookie season, in which Alex Van Pelt was the offensive coordinator and play-caller.
How much of the Eagles’ playbook does Milton have down?
“Shoot, whatever’s in this week,” he said with a laugh.
But he stressed that he knows what he needs to know, especially ahead of his first NFL start, when the Eagles face the 4-2-1 New York Giants.
Milton may not know everything there is to know about the offense, but the Eagles know plenty about him. In his limited NFL action, the 6-foot-5, 236-pound quarterback has excelled, especially during his most extensive look two seasons ago in Week 18 against the Buffalo Bills. In the Patriots’ 23-16 win, Milton flaunted his arm strength and his mobility, going 22-for-29 for 241 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 16 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.
“The arm talent is the thing that stands out the most about him,” Frazier said. “Even from when he was coming out of Tennessee, I’ve always been intrigued with him as a player, the success he’s had in the limited exposure that he’s had when he got to play in New England, and then the preseason reps that he had in Dallas. Knowing people that have worked with him, everybody talks about his energy and his positivity, and just how he is in the building.
“Him coming in the building has been great to work with. He works his tail off to get caught up with what we’re doing. He does have positive energy in the room. He’s himself. He’s comfortable in his own skin. So when you look at those things, I think he’s been a great asset for the room.”
Milton must now become an on-field asset for an Eagles team that has a minus-889 total yards differential during their six-game losing streak. That differential is the worst in the NFL and more than 200 yards worse than the Tennessee Titans at -657, according to Next Gen Stats.
But Milton isn’t making the moment bigger than it needs to be. He said he is staying grounded through his nightly FaceTime calls with his one-year-old daughter, Maleia.
“When I see her face, it just allows me to be thankful,” Milton said. “So when I see her every night on FaceTime, I just be thankful. So it allows me to take a deep breath and remember where I’m at, and being where my feet [are] is probably the best thing, because you think too far, then you never know what [can happen].”
With Milton’s feet now in Philadelphia, the Eagles are hoping he can provide the spark they’re seeking on offense.
The Eagles have problems. Eight games into the season, that much is sure. But which ones are symptomatic, versus the ones that are systemic? From the head coach to the personnel, from coordinators to the front office, The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and David Murphy scrutinize the micro issues that point to some of the larger dilemmas the Eagles now face: should they start to pack it in, and who will be held accountable for the team’s shortcomings? Listen here.
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