Sharing a sideline with Tom Brady looks great on any quarterback’s resume, but holding a clipboard behind a legend only gets you so far. With seven career appearances, zero starts, and no touchdowns, Kyle Trask isn’t rolling into The Star to challenge Dak Prescott or unseat backup Sam Howell. He is here for a much simpler reason: the Dallas Cowboys needed to replace the scout-team arm a divisional rival just swiped off their practice squad.

Last week, the Philadelphia Eagles reached across the NFC East and signed third-year quarterback Joe Milton III straight off Dallas’ practice squad to their active 53-man roster. The need for immediate depth behind Tanner McKee after Jalen Hurts landed on the IR with a blood clot made this move necessary. Losing Milton’s upside left the Cowboys without a third quarterback to run scout-team reps during mid-week installations, prompting the front office to scan the market for an available replacement.

ESPN’s Todd Archer broke the news of the quarterback addition as the Cowboys began prepping for their upcoming Week 7 NFC East road trip.

“The Cowboys are signing QB Kyle Trask to their practice squad, per sources,” Todd Archer wrote on X. “He replaces Joe Milton III, who signed to the Eagles’ active roster last week. A second-round pick by Tampa Bay in 2021, he has also been with Atlanta and Carolina.”

Dallas avoided veteran free agents for clear roster and payroll reasons. An established starter commands a guaranteed spot on the 53-man roster, carries a veteran salary, and creates unnecessary friction behind Howell. The Cowboys simply needed an affordable practice-squad passer willing to absorb Wednesday and Thursday reps without disrupting the existing quarterback hierarchy.

In terms of the skill set, Trask represents a stark shift from Milton, though. Milton brought raw, explosive arm strength and mobility without regular-season experience, while Trask is a traditional pocket passer who has spent five years inside pro meeting rooms. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected him 64th overall in the 2021 draft after a Heisman-finalist campaign at Florida, but he was unable to challenge Tom Brady or Baker Mayfield for playing time.

Since 2022 (he didn’t play in ’21), he’s only completed 4-of-11 passes for 28 yards across seven career appearances in relief duty. After offseason and preseason stints with the Atlanta Falcons (2025) and the Carolina Panthers – who waived him on August 30th – Trask remained a free agent up for grabs. But this doesn’t mean Trask is without merits. During their shared time in Tampa Bay, Brady had once pointed directly to the strengths Trask demonstrated behind the scenes.

“Kyle’s done a great job from the day that he got here. He’s a very hard worker,” Brady said in 2021. “Kyle’s out here early, stays late, works with the younger guys. All the things you’re really looking for in a young player. This has got to be a huge priority in your life if you want to be doing this job for a long time — you’ve got to make it a huge priority.

“You really don’t know what you don’t know at this point, when you’re one year in or two years in or three years in or five years in. As somebody who’s 22 years in, what I knew at five years in is very different from what I knew at 10, and very different from what I know now.”

The Cowboys could definitely use that steady execution across the board. Across six games, head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s offense has struggled to find its footing, managing just 13 points in Sunday’s 23-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers. At Lambeau Field in Week 6, their lone touchdown drive finished with 44 seconds left on the clock. It even followed a similar script from Week 5 against Tampa Bay, when fourth-quarter scoring merely tightened a 24-16 loss.

To fix things in a hurry, Trask’s arrival was also accompanied by urgent restructuring on the defensive side of the ball.

Cowboys shuffle secondary to address safety crisis

Beyond signing Kyle Trask to their practice squad, Dallas made two additional roster moves: they signed safety Juanyeh Thomas to the active 53-man roster, and waived cornerback Caelen Carson.

This move was forced by mounting injuries on the back end. P.J. Locke is on the IR with a torn plantar fascia, and offseason acquisition Jalen Thompson faces a four-to-six-week absence due to a hamstring injury suffered against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3, and starter Malik Hooker has already suffered a forearm fracture that sidelined him for two weeks earlier this season.

Thomas, who originally signed as an UDFA out of Georgia Tech in 2022, had already exhausted the NFL’s limit of three standard practice-squad elevations following appearances against the Houston Texans, the Buccaneers, and the Packers. Under league rules, Dallas could not play him on game day again without converting him to a full 53-man roster contract.

To open a roster spot for Thomas, the team exposed Carson to waivers. The 2024 fifth-round pick out of Wake Forest had slipped down the depth chart following the addition of Cobie Durant and the trade for Joey Porter Jr., totaling one tackle across 17 defensive snaps and 28 special-team reps in three appearances this year. The Cowboys could re-sign Carson to the practice squad if he clears the waiver wire on Wednesday.

Sitting at 2-4, Dallas enters Monday Night Football at Lincoln Financial Field with little room for error. While Kyle Trask settles in running Philadelphia’s look on the practice field, Thomas and an overhauled secondary face the task of containing an Eagles passing attack on national television. With scrutiny around the coaching staff mounting, this is one divisional matchup Dallas cannot afford to lose.