Dallas has reached the final week of the preseason without naming Dak Prescott’s primary backup. That is not indecision disguised as competition. It is a useful result of two quarterbacks supplying different kinds of evidence while the Cowboys still have one game and two practices left to test them.
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer said Monday that Joe Milton III and Sam Howell were “neck and neck,” with Howell perhaps slightly ahead when the full training-camp body of work is considered. He also said the staff was not ready to make a decision. The confirmed point is therefore narrow: Dallas has two candidates, the competition remains open, and the preseason finale against New Orleans will extend the evaluation. Any claim that one player has already won the job would run beyond the club’s own account.
Two different evidence sets
The strongest argument for Milton comes from the most recent game. The Cowboys’ official recap credited him with 9 completions on 13 attempts for 179 yards, two passing touchdowns and a rushing score in the first half of a 34–13 victory over Arizona. Howell handled the second half, completed 70 percent of his throws for 65 yards and was intercepted once. Those numbers explain why Milton tightened the race, but they do not erase every practice or possession that preceded them.
Howell started the first preseason game in Seattle. The National Football League’s cumulative line through two exhibitions lists him at 15 completions on 22 attempts for 159 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Milton is listed at 21 of 28 for 286 yards and three passing touchdowns, with another score on the ground. Schottenheimer specifically cited Howell’s two-minute drive in Seattle while praising Milton’s work in both games. The coach’s comparison places game production inside a larger camp evaluation rather than treating the Arizona box score as the entire decision.
The cleanest way to read the competition is as a test of evidence quality, not merely evidence volume. Milton has produced the more explosive preseason line. Howell retains support from the daily work that coaches see in installation, practice periods and situational football. Dallas must decide how much weight to give each sample, and the public numbers cannot answer that question by themselves.
What the job actually requires
An NFL backup quarterback is selected for a contingency, not for a highlight reel. The role asks a player to prepare with limited first-team work, protect the offense’s operating language and enter a game without advance notice. Explosive plays matter, but so do procedure, protection communication, ball security and the ability to keep the plan intact. The Cowboys have not published a scorecard for those traits, so they should remain evaluation categories rather than declared advantages for either player.
That distinction explains why Schottenheimer can acknowledge Milton’s visible production while keeping Howell in the race. A preseason drive shows what happened against a particular defense with a particular supporting group. A week of practice shows whether the quarterback can repeat the calls, corrections and timing the staff is installing. The decision needs both views because the regular-season job could demand either: a short emergency appearance or a longer stretch managing the offense.
Dallas’s unofficial depth chart reinforces the lack of a settled order. Prescott is listed first, while Milton and Howell appear together behind him rather than in a clean second-and-third sequence. That document is not a final roster guarantee, but it is consistent with the coach’s public description of an active competition.
The finale is a comparison tool
The most revealing question Friday is not simply which quarterback starts. Dallas alternated the opening assignment across the first two preseason games, with Howell going first in Seattle and Milton starting in Arizona. A third opening assignment can distribute opportunity, but the more useful evidence will come from how the staff structures comparable situations.
The fairest final test would expose both quarterbacks to similar demands: an early-down progression, a third-and-manageable decision, a backed-up possession, a two-minute sequence and at least one red-zone opportunity. Personnel and game flow will prevent a perfect laboratory. Still, the closer the situations are, the easier it becomes to separate quarterback execution from the quality of the surrounding snaps.
Dallas also has to avoid turning one late mistake or one explosive play into a verdict detached from the rest of camp. The original contribution of this final week is not another set of raw totals; it is a last chance to compare process under similar constraints. That is why the competition can remain genuinely open even after Milton’s productive night in Arizona.
What remains uncertain
Neither the Cowboys nor Schottenheimer has announced the winner, the planned snap distribution against New Orleans or the final quarterback count. The official schedule places the preseason finale at AT&T Stadium on Friday, Aug. 28. Until the staff makes its decision, the responsible conclusion is that Milton improved his case and Howell still owns evidence the coaches value.
The competition has already produced one positive result for Dallas: the club is choosing between two candidates who have supplied credible reasons to keep evaluating them. The next step is not to crown the better August stat line. It is to identify which quarterback best preserves the offense when Prescott is unavailable—and to make that judgment from the full body of work.
Sources: Dallas Cowboys official reporting, game recap, depth chart and schedule; National Football League reporting.
Featured image: AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Photo by Supportstorm via Wikimedia Commons. License: Public domain, worldwide dedication by the copyright holder. Modifications: cropped from 3,151 × 1,343 pixels to a 2,098 × 1,180-pixel 16:9 frame to remove a partial bystander and focus on the stadium, then resized to 2,400 × 1,350 pixels.
