The Cowboys appear set to move on from Trey Lance.
It looks like Trey Lance’s time with the Dallas Cowboys is ending. Stephen Jones spoke before the NFL combine, and he mentioned that given the state of where things stand with Dak Prescott being the center of the team’s future, Lance may explore options outside of Dallas.
“We took a shot a Trey and wanted to do that,” Jones told The Dallas Morning News at the scouting combine. “We think the world of Trey.
“But us having Dak signed up for the long-term, I think he’s probably going to be looking for something different.”
If Dallas did not reach a contract extension with Prescott before Week 1 last year, all three quarterbacks would be free agents this offseason. With their franchise player under contract, Lance and Cooper Rush are the group’s two unrestricted free agents.
Dallas traded a fourth-round pick for the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback before the 2023 season, and he spent the entire season inactive, learning Mike McCarthy’s playbook. At the time it seemed like Lance could be a fallback plan if negotiations with Prescott went south before the 2024 season.
When Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring injury this past season, McCarthy felt Rush gave the team a better opportunity to win games. That told fans all they needed to know about Lance and his development; they never felt comfortable enough to win with him.
After a stretch of preseason games and one start in the season-finale, Lance will leave Dallas with a stat line of 25 of 41 passing for 266 yards and one interception. As for Rush, it remains to be seen what his market will be like and if the Cowboys, who have always valued the backup quarterback position, move to retain the free agent who went 4-4 last season as a starter. Jones said the team will wait and see how much it will cost to bring him back.
Regardless of whether there is a potential veteran quarterback to back up Prescott in 2025, Jones emphasized that one of the team’s goals is to exit the NFL draft with a rookie quarterback to develop.
“You know, I think one of our goals is to get a young quarterback in the draft,” Jones said. “I don’t know where that’s going to be.
“That’s why we gave a [fourth-round pick] for Trey. It seems like all the quarterbacks, even guys we have in the fourth round, go in the first. They always go so much higher than what you think.”
The last time Dallas selected a rookie quarterback was in 2020, during Mike McCarthy’s first season with the Cowboys, when they picked Ben DiNucci in the seventh round. Jones did not specify what round they might consider taking a rookie passer, but for now, the most likely option would be in the fifth round, where the team has three draft picks.
The team has too many holes to fill to warrant selecting a rookie quarterback in the first three rounds, but if they feel strong enough about a player, they could shock the fanbase and do something like that if head coach Brian Schottenheimer wants to get his guy.
The Lance experiment failed to provide any real value for Dallas, especially considering they could have selected several quality players last season in the area where they would have picked in the fourth round with their original draft pick.
