Former Tennessee QB Joe Milton will officially have the chance to shock the NFL

The expectation this summer is that former Tennessee Vols quarterback Joe Milton will be competing with Bailey Zappe for the New England Patriots' No. 3 quarterback job.

Milton and Zappe are essentially battling for the No. 3 job while rookie first round draft pick Drake Maye and veteran Jacoby Brissett are battling for the starting job.

For now, Brissett is the leader in the clubhouse to land the starting job, but according to Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, who is a former Tennessee Vols linebacker, anyone could emerge from camp as the starter -- including Milton.

“I’ll sit here and tell you that coming out of the spring, Jacoby looks like the starting quarterback," said Mayo earlier this week. "Now with that being said, he’ll have competition. Let’s not forget about even Joe Milton. Let’s not forget about Zappe. All those guys will have opportunities to go out there and be the starting quarterback ."

It's unlikely that Milton actually wins the starting job out of camp. Even if he performs well, the Patriots are almost certainly going to go with either Brissett or Maye. New England views Milton as more of a developmental prospect than a potential starter in 2024.

One reason why Milton is unlikely to start this fall, even if he has an insanely great training camp, is because if he were to win the job, it would instantly signal to the fan base that Maye is a bust before he even plays a game. There's just no way the New England front office is going down the path (especially in a season where the Patriots aren't expected to compete for a spot in the playoffs).

It's obvious that competition is the big theme in Patriots training camp this summer. And it should be encouraging to Milton that he at least has a chance to impress coaches enough that he could slide up the depth chart if he wildly exceeds expectations during camp/preseason (maybe Brissett has a bad camp and Milton can slide into that No. 2 role...unlikely but plausible).

Watching Milton's development in the NFL is going to be intriguing. He has all the tools to be an effective NFL quarterback, we're just waiting for it to all come together for the Florida native. Maybe someone with the Patriots will be able to fully unlock his skills over the next several weeks and we'll finally see Milton hit his ceiling as a quarterback.

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