Michael Irvin has fired a warning to Dak Prescott over his starting position.
The star quarterback will have new backup in the form of Joe Milton III next season, after the Dallas Cowboys acquired him in a surprise trade with the New England Patriots.
And Prescott, who will make $60million in 2025 as the NFL‘s highest-paid player, has already been put on notice.
Last week, two-time Super Bowl champion LeSean McCoy suggested he should ‘find a realtor’ after Milton’s arrival, and now a Cowboys legend has warned his position could be under threat.
“Don’t give this kid a chance, Dak, don’t give this kid a chance,” Irvin said on his YouTube channel.
“You better stay healthy, stay ready, stay on the football field.
“Now remember, you’re making $60m a year. This kid (is) making only $1m.
“If you give him a chance to get on that the field… it’s going to be ugly.”
Milton, who was drafted into the league last year, has already shown promise in New England.
The sixth-round pick made his professional debut in the 2024 season finale against the Buffalo Bills, after relieving starter Drake Maye.
He completed 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown, while also adding 16 yards and a TD on the ground in a 23-16 upset win.
Some believe that Milton’s performance in that game showed that he had what it took to challenge – or supplant – Maye for New England’s starting role.
A report from MassLive even suggested that the 25-year-old QB ‘made it clear behind the scenes‘ that he no longer wanted to be sitting.
For Mike Vrabel, who was hired as the Patriots head coach in January and is trying to establish a culture, that attitude ‘didn’t fly’.
“With 2024 third-overall pick Maye considered the team’s franchise quarterback, Milton was the proverbial fly in the ointment,” Massachusetts-based reporter Karen Guregian wrote, trying to make sense of the situation.
“He was the elephant in the room and possible disruptor to the new sheriff in town, his team, and his prized young quarterback.”
And just like that, Milton finds himself in Dallas, where he will play backup to Prescott instead.
But the likes of McCoy and Irvin are perhaps right to offer the Cowboys starter a warning, even if he has shown off an incredible body transformation in the offseason.
Last season, Prescott suffered a hamstring injury in Week 9, had surgery, and didn’t feature again.
He has struggled with injuries at other moments in his career too, and played just five games in 2020, while he also missed weeks of the 2022 season.
The franchise QB’s history suggests that the backup position in Dallas is indeed an important one, which offers an opportunity to see the field.
Cooper Rush, Prescott’s previous No. 2 who departed last month, proved valuable to the Cowboys with a 9-5 record.
If Prescott doesn’t ‘stay healthy’ as Irvin warns, Milton will also have a chance to play, and if he fancied himself as a challenger to Maye in New England, he will also back himself in a battle for the starting position in Dallas too.
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