Chargers clearly have no faith in Trey Lance after surprising contract update

The Dallas Cowboys have not had good luck with trades involving day three draft picks. While the Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks deals can be regarded as wins, trading away Amari Cooper for a fifth-round pick and a sixth-round pick swap was a failure of epic proportions.

We have also seen Dallas trade away fourth-round picks for Trey Lance and Jonathan Mingo. While the jury is still out on Mingo being he was acquired at last year's trade deadline, the Lance experiment lasted just two seasons and never made it off the ground.

Buried behind Dak Prescott and Cooper on the depth chart, Lance appeared in just four games and made one regular-season start for the Cowboys in a meaningless Week 18 game against the Commanders in January.

Lance didn't show nearly enough to warrant being re-signed by Dallas. He recently inked a one-year pact with Jim Harbaugh and the LA Chargers to presumably compete with Taylor Heinicke for the backup job behind Justin Herbert.

That actually might not be the case.

Former Cowboys QB Trey Lance's contract details with Chargers revealed

It was initially reported that Lance's deal is worth up to $6.2 million. According to Alex Insdorf of Bolt Beat, the base value of Lance's contract is $2.045 million. Incentives push the max value of the deal to the aforementioned $6.2 million, but $2.045 million is the number to know here.

While Lance and Heinicke have similar contracts, Heinicke's $2.5 million base salary gives him a modest edge over the former No. 3 overall pick. That Heinicke will make more than Lance suggests he'll start offseason workouts as the Chargers' QB2.

That doesn't mean Lance won't put heat on Heinicke in OTAs and training camp. It also doesn't rule out Lance potentially leapfrogging the longtime backup.

At the same time, Heinicke has started 29 games in his career and helped Washington win the NFC East in 2021 in the only season he started more than 10 games. Granted, the division was a train wreck that year and Heinicke hasn't been able to find a consistent starting role since, but that experience will play in his favor this summer.

Lance, meanwhile, has attempted just 143 passes in his career. He's completed less than 57% of his passes while averaging 88.8 passing yards per game with five touchdowns to four interceptions. His career 80.3 passer rating would have ranked 35th of 37 QBs last season.

Hopefully Lance is able to push Heinicke and get his career back on track. Based on the information at our disposal, though, it wouldn't surprise at all if he ends up in the exact same role he had with the Cowboys.