Why the Dolphins Need to Make This No-Brainer Milton Move

After the Miami Dolphins picked up an eye-opening seven players through waivers Monday, GM Jon-Eric Sullivan discussed the evolution of the roster with the key point being that more changes will be coming.

Given the state of the roster with so many young and unproven players who may or may not pan out, Sullivan absolutely is right that the Dolphins can't stop looking for potential future contributors.

And that applies to every single solitary position on the roster.

And it brings us to quarterback Joe Milton III, who the Dolphins absolutely, positively need to bring into the fold — or at least attempt to.

Milton now is available via waivers after the Dallas Cowboys made the surprising decision Monday to waived him after picking up running back Emari Demercado from the Arizona Cardinals. By all accounts, the Cowboys made this move with the thought of bringing Milton back to the practice squad because they figure other NFL teams settled their quarterback situation over the weekend.

But this is where the Dolphins are different, which might play to their advantage.

WHY THE DOLPHINS COULD BE WELL POSITIONED TO LAND MILTON

As Sullivan said, the Dolphins' roster isn't settled, it's an ongoing project.

Remember this quote: "You guys know we're always going to churn this thing and keep this thing rolling in terms of roster development and competition."

For those not familiar, Milton was considered a raw prospect coming out of Tennessee, but also highly intriguing because of his mobility and arm strength that's as good as any quarterback in the NFL, if not better.

The nickname "Bazooka Joe" is all you need to know about that.

Milton isn't a finished project, to be sure, but word out of Dallas is he pretty much was on a par with Sam Howell, though Howell probably is a safer proposition to navigate games right now if something were to happen to starter Dak Prescott.

There's logic there because the Cowboys are in a win-now mode.

The Dolphins are not in a win-now mode; they're in a mode of establish a foundation and an identity and, perhaps more importantly, finding talented young players to become major contributors down the road.

That's Milton's profile.

The Dolphins still are 11th in the waiver priority order, so if they indeed put in a claim for Milton, they'll have to hope that none of the other 10 do as well. Those teams are, in order: Las Vegas, New York Jets, Arizona, Tennessee, New York Giants, Cleveland, Washington, New Orleans, Kansas City and Cincinnati.

Quite frankly, we'd be surprised if none of them were to put in a claim for Milton because of his physical traits.

The best hope here for Miami is that all of those teams decide they're set at quarterback and don't want to bring a late addition for 2026.

WHY THE DOLPHINS MUST PUT IN A CLAIM

The Dolphins, again, are operating differently than just about every other franchise in 2026, in large part the result of the massive rebuilding project necessitated by the desire to clear up the cap situation for the future even if it meant absorbing so much dead space right away.

The Dolphins did pick up quarterbacks Kyle McCord and Brady Cook in the past couple of days, but it's not like they made a major commitment to either player, whether financial or in terms of assets surrendered.

Both players will make the minimum or right around the minimum salary, and the draft pick to get McCord was a sixth-rounder but two years down the road.

And this is where we point out that Milton also comes with a very cheap price tag as he heads into the third year of his four-year rookie contract after being a sixth-round pick of the New England Patriots in 2024.

In his first two NFL seasons, Milton has appeared in five games with no starts, which means he's got more experience than either McCord or Cook.

McCord is a second-year QB without an NFL regular season game experience; Cook started four of his five games as a rookie for the Jets last year, but Milton is in his third season.

The bottom line here is that, yes, Milton is an unproven commodity, but so are McCord and Cook and again the upside with Milton pretty clearly looks much higher.

So, yes, the Dolphins absolutely should put in a waiver claim for him, and if they land him they simply can move on from Cook, who would go back to the same place he was after being waived by the Jets. And then the Dolphins even could bring back Cook to the practice squad after he clears waivers the second time around and have him join or replace Mark Gronowski.

It really should be a slam dunk.

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