Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Joe Milton looked fantastic during the first couple of weeks of training camp with the Dallas Cowboys.

Milton looked so good during practices that many fans and analysts assumed the Florida native had the Cowboys’ backup quarterback job locked up.

But that isn’t the case.

Milton, who was traded from the New England Patriots to the Cowboys earlier this year, is battling Will Grier for the No. 2 quarterback job in Dallas. And that job is still up for grabs after Milton’s uneven performance in the Cowboys’ preseason loss to the Los Angeles Rams last week.

The former Vol had a bit too much juice on a few of his passes in his preseason debut with the Cowboys, which led to some tough incompletions.

“We need to throw more completions, he knows that…he had his fastball out today,” said Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer after the loss to the Rams. “And there’s times that you got to kind of throw a little bit of a change up.”

Schottenheimer said this week that he’s still “figuring out” about Milton while pointing out that he’s not worried about the quarterback’s performance against the Rams.

“I think our plan all along has been: We need to find out about Joe Milton,” said Schottenheimer. “Under no circumstance am I panicked or worried about Joe Milton. Joe Milton played really well in the second half. He did some really great things. He calmed down, he figured it out.”

“We’re going to let these guys all compete, and it’s not a negative against Will Grier that he’s not getting the reps,” continued Schottenheimer. “I’ve been around Will Grier for a couple years now. We know who Will Grier is. We are not surprised when he goes in and does that. It’s figuring out more of Joe Milton, it’s the unknown more than the competition.”

“You balance it (reps in practice) by saying we want to find out more about Joe Milton. There’s a ton of talent, there’s a bunch of things that we see from Joe Milton. You saw Joe needs the reps, you saw the way he started the game, you saw the way there was a little bit of struggle for us early on.”

Schottenheimer made it clear that neither quarterback has won the backup job yet.

“I’m not going to say who the backup running back is right now, who the backup quarterback is right now, because I don’t have to make those decisions yet,” said Schottenheimer.

Milton will get his next chance to impress the Dallas coaching staff on Saturday (August 16) in a preseason matchup against the Baltimore Ravens.

Tennessee Volunteers News

‘Tennessee is going to have some regrets’ – Insider dishes on former Vols QB Nico Iamaleava’s performance after transferring to UCLA

There are going to be a lot of eyes on former Tennessee Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava this fall. Iamaleava is expected to draw attention from college football fans all season long after transferring from Tennessee to UCLA near the end of spring practice. The California native helped Tennessee reach the College Football Playoff last season […]

Zach Ragan