![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2290662179-e1787610376118.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Sam Howell #16 of the Dallas Cowboys could lose his spot to Joe Milton.<\/p>\n
For a league that has a salary cap that ticked over $300 million for the first time ever this season, the structure of NFL<\/a> payroll sheets is generally very tight. Teams move money around, push it into the future, with players they have some confidence they will be keeping, and are seemingly always able to carve out more with restructures\u00a0 to facilitate a signing or a trade.\u00a0 All in all, $2.5 million is not that much. Unless it is guaranteed for this season, as is the case for Dallas Cowboys<\/a> quarterback\u00a0Sam Howell<\/a>.<\/p>\n Teams do not like to flat-out toss aside guaranteed money off the current year\u2019s payroll. But with the way that the Cowboys\u2019 training camp and preseason slate have gone, there might not be much choice.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s not because Howell has done poorly thus far. In fact, he has done exactly what the Cowboys signed him to do in March: to push third-year QB Joe Milton<\/a> to master the offense and staking his claim to the QB2 job behind Dak Prescott<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cowboys QB2 Competition Not Over for Sam Howell<\/p>\n There is another preseason game yet to be played, against New Orleans, and coach Brian Schottenheimer has been careful to say that the QB2 competition is not over. But there is no doubt that, after his sterling performance in the win over the Cardinals<\/a> on Saturday, Milton is a strong favorite.<\/p>\n Milton led the team by going\u00a0 9-for-13 on his passes for 179 yards. He threw for two touchdowns, including a beautiful 53-yard fade to Jonathan Mingo. Milton also ran for a score and posted a 151.4 quarterback rating.<\/p>\n Now, according to Calvin Watkins of The Dallas Morning News, Milton is likely in\u2013and Howell is out. In predicting the 53-man roster, Watkins had Dak Prescott leading the quarterback room, of course, with Milton behind him. And \u2026 no Howell.<\/p>\n Wrote Watkins<\/a>: \u201cThere is one more game left in the preseason, and Sam Howell has a chance to make his case. Milton\u2019s performance in the second preseason game (three touchdowns, two passing and one on a QB sneak) was impressive. The Cowboys can bring Howell back to the practice squad, if needed.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Howell Had Early Lead Over Joe Milton<\/p>\n Certainly, that\u2019s a switch. Coming out of training camp in Oxnard, it appeared that Howell might be the guy the Cowboys coaches were more comfortable playing. Howell underwent a full season as a starter in Washington, and though it did not go great\u2013Howell\u2019s Commanders<\/a> were 4-13 when he was the starter in 2021\u2013the fact that he has that experience is valued by Schottenheimer.<\/p>\n Milton has never started an NFL game. But he flashed enough potential to make any observer wish to see more. Sam Howell would give the Cowboys a predictable, reliable QB2 option, where Milton would have a lower floor but considerably more upside.<\/p>\n Cowboys \u2018Really Proud\u2019 of Joe Milton<\/p>\n Schottenheimer, speaking to Cowboys reporters on Monday, said Milton\u2019s growth has his attention. That\u2019s not necessarily bad for Sam Howell, but with the Cowboys seeking depth at key positions (cornerback, linebacker, offensive tackle), holding three quarterbacks would be difficult.<\/p>\n Schottenheimer said Milton\u2019s<\/a> reputation, going back to college, as a hard thrower was always irrelevant: \u201cEveryone applauded him for how hard and how far he could throw the ball. Cool. That\u2019s awesome. Go be in a carnival somewhere. That\u2019s not what playing an NFL quarterback is. It\u2019s not. \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cYou got to play quarterback. And that\u2019s what I think you see Joe learning is he\u2019s playing quarterback. And he\u2019s playing quarterback at a high level. He\u2019s checking the ball down. He\u2019s making blitz adjustments. He\u2019s solving problems. He\u2019s reading from his first, second to third, and even fourth progression at times. It takes time. You don\u2019t stop learning as a quarterback. The only way to do it is to play. I\u2019m really, really proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSean Deveney<\/a> is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Sam Howell #16 of the Dallas Cowboys could lose his spot to Joe Milton. For a league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-416086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}