FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Quarterback Joe Milton rejoined the Dallas Cowboys on the practice squad Wednesday after losing his backup job to offseason pickup Sam Howell.
Milton was waived Monday, a day before coach Brian Schottenheimer said the nod to be the No. 2 behind Dak Prescott went to Howell because of his overall command of the offense.
“We looked at the whole body of work,” Schottenheimer said. “We just felt like Sam had done a little bit more just in terms of executing the offense in certain areas.”
Milton backed up Prescott in 2025, his second year in the league after the Cowboys acquired him in a trade with New England. The 26-year-old was much better in the preseason this summer than a year ago, throwing for 378 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Howell saved his best for the end of the preseason, throwing two fourth-quarter touchdowns and running for a tying 2-point conversion to help Dallas erase a 15-point deficit against New Orleans. The Saints kicked a field goal for a 27-24 win.
The 25-year-old Howell has more game experience in the regular season than Milton. He started all 17 games for Washington in 2023 and has 18 starts overall, although his record is 5-13.
Milton appeared in four games in relief of Prescott last season but hasn't made a regular-season start in his first two years. Milton was a sixth-round pick by the Patriots in 2024, two years after the Commanders drafted Howell in the fifth round.
Howell signed a $2.5 million, one-year contract with $2 million guaranteed as a free agent this spring.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Joe Milton III (10) throws against the New Orleans Saints during the first half of a preseason NFL football game, in Arlington, Texas, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial went home without a verdict Wednesday following a fifth day of deliberations and twice saying they can’t agree whether the Massachusetts mother is criminally responsible for killing her three young children.
The jury will return again Thursday morning. The judge told jurors to keep deliberating Wednesday when they said for a second straight day that they were at an impasse — a sign there’s a growing chance of a hung jury and the trial ending without a resolution.
Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, doesn’t deny strangling her children in the basement of their home in 2023. Her attorney argues that postpartum psychosis led to her actions, while prosecutors say she knew what she was doing when she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months.
“I know it’s been a long day,” Judge William Sullivan said, “so at this point, what I’m going to do is, first off thank you for your time and commitment to this case. I’m going to ask you to come back tomorrow morning."
Clancy stared at the jury with no expression when Sullivan earlier in the day explained to the courtroom that the jurors were at a standstill.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
Earlier in the day, the jury sent the court a note saying it couldn't unanimously agree on a verdict, despite days of trying. The jury had sent a similar note Tuesday morning. Neither note revealed anything about how the jury might be split or said anything about the tone of deliberations.
Sullivan then gave the jury a legal instruction sometimes known as a “dynamite charge” because it is intended to help a jury break through an impasse.
He told the jurors not to abandon their own convictions just to reach a verdict, but urged them to seriously consider opposing views and reassess their positions if appropriate. No one knows, he added, whether another jury would be “more intelligent, more impartial or more competent to decide it than you are.”
Such instructions are common in many states and the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld their constitutionality, but they are barred in some states because of concerns they might be coercive.
Elyse Hershon, a Boston criminal defense attorney and legal analyst, said, “The next time they say they are deadlocked or unagreed — that is usually the mistrial call.”
Clancy’s livestreamed trial has generated intense interest, with reporters and spectators packing the courtroom. The case has also sparked deep public divisions over her culpability and the issues around maternal mental health after childbirth.
Clancy strangled her children in her home, then jumped from a second-floor window. She remains paralyzed from the waist down. Her lawyers say she heard a voice telling her to kill the children so she could end her own life, and had bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth.
The prosecution argued that Clancy planned to kill herself because of depression, deliberately sent her then-husband on errands to get him out of the house that day, and killed the children because she didn't want them to suffer after she was gone.
Jurors heard testimony from relatives and doctors about how Clancy’s mental health declined in the months before the killings and how her treatment included therapy, several medications and a short stay in a psychiatric hospital.
If jurors ultimately can’t agree on a verdict, the judge could declare a mistrial. Prosecutors would then have to decide whether to put Clancy on trial again, drop the charges or try to negotiate a plea deal with her lawyer.
If the jury decides Clancy was criminally responsible for her actions, it could convict her of either murder or manslaughter. If she is acquitted, a judge could still order her confined to a mental health facility if an evaluation determines that she poses a danger to the public.
Dawn Light, 56, was arraigned on an intimidation charge Wednesday at the same courthouse as Clancy's trial in Plymouth, south of Boston. Authorities say she filmed jurors leaving the courthouse a day earlier.
Light, a retired nurse and Clancy supporter, told reporters she was there: “To see Lindsay. And I did see her. She was getting picked up by the van.”
Her lawyer Jennifer White called it a “misunderstanding.”
A not-guilty plea was entered on Light's behalf and she was ordered to stay away from the court, jurors and witnesses.
The arrest prompted the judge to ask each juror Wednesday if they saw anything that would affect their impartiality, Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington told The Associated Press. The judge also opened the day's proceedings with a warning that he had issued an order governing how people should conduct themselves at the courthouse. That order barred people from filming, following, contacting or tampering with jurors.
This story has been corrected to show that Clancy’s attorney clarified that the judge asked jurors about their impartiality, not the woman’s arrest.
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.
The press and spectators sit in the courtroom during Lindsay Clancy's murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy and attorney Kevin Reddington watch as Judge William Sullivan tells the jury to keep discussing a possible verdict after jurors said for a second time they couldn't agree whether Lindsay Clancy was criminally responsible for killing her three children in 2023, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Mike Musgrove, father of Lindsay Clancy, center right, sits with family as they listen to the judge tell the jury to keep discussing a possible verdict after jurors said they couldn't agree for a second time whether Clancy is criminally responsible for killing her three children in 2023, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy and attorney Kevin Reddington watch as Judge William Sullivan tells the jury to keep discussing a possible verdict after jurors said for a second time they couldn't agree whether Lindsay Clancy was criminally responsible for killing her three children in 2023, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger)
In this photo taken with a smartphone Dawn Light is questioned by reporters as she leaves her arraignment where she was charged with intimidation in connection with the Lindsay Clancy's murder trial in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
Dawn Light attends her arraignment on a charge of intimidation in connection with the Lindsay Clancy's murder trial at Plymouth District Court in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Judge William Sullivan speaks to the press and spectators in the courtroom during Lindsay Clancy's murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
A diet soda sits in Lindsay Clancy's wheelchair as the jury resumes deliberations during her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy reacts to news that a woman was arrested for recording images of the jury at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy looks to her lawyer Kevin Reddington as the jury keeps deliberating at her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
