McMullen: Joe Milton Isn’t to Blame After Eagles Set Him Up to Fail in Week 9

It's clear that Philadelphia put its new QB in an uphill battle.

It's safe to say the Eagles didn't do Joe Milton any favors in Sunday's loss to the rival Giants. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

PHILADELPHIA, P.A. — In the thick fog that settles over an organization after a seventh consecutive loss, the usual postgame noise quickly transformed into apathy in the shadow of the Eagles' 19-11 setback to the Giants on Sunday. 

At 2-7, the Eagles are past the stage of searching for a spark and into the quieter territory of just trying to get through the remaining weeks of the 2026 season before rebooting in the offseason. 

Into that haze walked Joe Milton, three weeks on the roster and making his first NFL start. He inadvertently said the quiet part out loud.⁠

During a desperate final drive with seconds waning and no timeouts, Milton noted he trusted the embattled offensive line and loved the communication he was privy to despite the year-long issue with unaccounted-for pass rushers.

It was the kind of honesty only extemporaneous speech provides.

Joe Milton clearly didn't have enough time to prepare for Week 9

“I will learn y’all verbiage. I will,” Milton told his bodyguards. “That’s something that I put on myself to do for sure.” 

Three weeks to absorb an offensive line’s language—the calls, the slides, the checks, the ‘who’s got the free runner’ signals—and the promise he would catch up. 

That is not a quarterback complaining. That is a quarterback admitting the assignment was heavier than the preparation time allowed.⁠

Joe Milton made it clear that he needed more preparation time to be ready to take on the Giants over the weekend. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The play that made it obvious came from athletic rookie Arvell Reese, who came free on the right side, breezing by fellow freshman Markel Bell before nearly splitting Milton in two.

Milton never saw Reese, who separated the QB1 from his senses for a moment and the football. 

Afterward, head coach Nick Sirianni did what he usually does when the film is going to be ugly. He said he was not going to assign fault. 

Then he walked through the accountability coaching checklist: anytime a guy is free, look at the coaches first; ask whether everything possible was done to help the players; both coaching and execution matter; it starts with him; every product on the field is his responsibility. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Sirianni’s monologue and Milton’s admission are not necessarily in conflict. They describe the same problem from different viewpoints. 

Milton was signed off the Cowboys’ practice squad on Oct. 16. By the time he took the first snap against a Giants team that blitzes often and had the quickly ascending Reese, who finished with three sacks overall, Milton had a limited number of practices in the scheme under his belt. 

Eagles deserve blame for putting Joe Milton in no-win situation

The offensive line has been a problem all year for the Eagles. Protections have been a problem all year. Putting a new quarterback behind that line and asking him to diagnose, communicate, and correct in real time did not give Milton a chance. 

It was testing whether the young signal caller could survive while still learning the language the line already speaks.

Sirianni is right that he owns the product. That ownership includes the decision to start Milton when the verbiage was still unfinished business. It includes the protection packages that left Reese with a free run. It includes the cumulative reality that seven sacks and a lost fumble on an unblocked blitz happened on the first start of a player who had just promised the line he would get their calls down. 

Milton put the learning curve on himself, as professional quarterbacks do. The organization put him in the game before the curve was flat enough.

The Eagles did not hand Milton a functional offense and ask him to elevate it. They handed him a protection problem that has gone unsolved for weeks and told him the answer was on the field Sunday. He did what he could with what he had. 

The result was what the setup predicted.

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