Breaking: The Patriots Have Traded Joe Milton to Dallas

Welp, this wasn't totally unexpected:

Especially given that there's a shortage of starting-caliber NFL quarterbacks and this year's draft class is swimming in the shallow end of the talent kiddie pool. So it's simple Adam Smith economics that the price of an asset would go up when Demand outstrips Supply. 

Factor in that the Patriots just signed Joshua Dobbs - a 30-year-old who's been around the NFL block with five teams, who has 15 career starts, and was himself a 4th round pick in 2017 - to a 2-year, $8 million deal, and they became a more motivated seller. 

At the league meetings, Vrabel acknowledged that Joe Milton was looking for an opportunity to potentially start somewhere. And suggested he deserved it. "I think Joe’s did everything that they asked him to do last year," he said. "Sounds like in conversations that he worked extremely hard, and that’s tough when you’re a quarterback. Everybody wants to play. Everybody wants to be the starter, everybody and that’s great to have that attitude."

Which was, of course, never going to happen here. So Patriots management decided to get more for Milton (a 5th rounder) than they spent to get him (a 6th). While giving their young backup who did all the right things a potential pathway to getting some starts, given that Dak Prescott has missed 25 games in the past five seasons. 

But am I wrong to think the Pats should've held out for more? 

I mean, they weren't forced to make a trade. They could've theoretically kept three QBs on their roster. Or at least let the rest of a quarterback-desperate league think that was their plan. And it's hard not to look back at the Round 2 they got for Jimmy Garoppolo at the trading deadline in 2017 and held out for something more in that ball park than a swap of picks. Dallas owns the 149th pick in the 5th. The Pats have three in the 7th. Making this a move up of somewhere between 68 spots and 89. Which is nice. It will help. But I'm greedier than that, I guess. 

You can argue "But Jimmy G had more experience than Milton when that trade happened. True. But not much more. Garoppolo had two career starts, lasting six quarters. And while he looked good, he didn't look appreciably better than Milton's four quarters last year:

All we can do is trust that Vrabel wasn't just willing to give Milton away to do the guy a solid. That he and Eliot Wolf shopped around, and this was what the market would bear. Also, that their internal assessment on him was that he was not the backup quarterback then needed for Drake Maye. Which is also disappointing because he was perhaps the most impressive physical specimen I've ever seen in a Patriots training camp. And for sure had the strongest arm. But once again the point is driven home that it takes more than an arm to make it in the league. Godspeed. I hope someday soon we get a Drake Maye vs. Joe Milton Super Bowl.