The Dallas Cowboys have a bit of an insurance option in quarterback Trey Lance.
As the Cowboys wrap up voluntary OTAs, the third-string quarterback continues to garner praise from those around him, including the likes of head coach Mike McCarthy. McCarthy is the most recent to compliment the 24-year-old quarterback, whom the Cowboys acquired in a preseason trade last year in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick.
"He was on a learning curve, but now he is starting to get the timing," McCarthy said on Thursday. "He's close to being a master of the system. He has a really high understanding. … He just needs as many reps as he can."
The former No. 3 overall draft pick will compete with longtime backup Cooper Rush to be the primary backup to Dak Prescott this season. And while Lance faces an uphill battle to unseat Rush — Rush went 4-1 as starter during the 2022 season with Prescott sidelined — he’ll have every opportunity to win the job.
Lance’s development as he goes through his first offseason workouts and training camp with the Cowboys is something extremely pivotal for the franchise as a whole. It’s no secret that Prescott is entering the final year of his deal and while the Cowboys maintain they want the MVP runner-up back for the long term, there’s no guarantee a deal gets done.
Not only will Prescott have the leverage of potentially entering a free agency market next offseason that will likely see a team offer him a $50 million a year deal — Kirk Cousins signed a $45 million per year deal this offseason — he also has the leverage of knowing that the Cowboys don’t have any true proven in-house options. The fact that he has no-trade and no-franchise tag stipulations just give him further leverage.
This is where the development of Lance is key.
If Lance — who actually won the San Francisco 49ers’ starting quarterback job prior to injury — can prove adequate and capable of serving as a starter again, the Cowboys have a fallback option in the 24-year-old quarterback.
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The Cowboys have no quarterbacks under roster for next season, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to re-sign Lance if the possibility of winning the starting job for 2025 is on the table. It would be beneficial for Lance considering he would be entering his third season in the system and he would also be inheriting a Super Bowl-ready team that has won at least 12 games in each of the last three seasons.
McCarthy isn’t the only one who has noticed the strides that Lance has made in his game during OTAs. Prescott himself acknowledged Lance’s skill set.
“He works his [expletive] off,” Prescott told reporters last week. “He’s pushing me, I can tell you that. I’m somebody, you know, I don’t like to let other people get more reps than me or not. And Trey is the person I’ve got to watch cuz he’s trying to get up there on the rep count. And so, that’s a testament to him and how much he’s putting into this, and I’ve seen it, and he’s gotten better. Yeah, he can play.”
While it’s obviously hard to tell how Lance has truly progressed — live contact is prohibited during OTAs — the Cowboys should be looking at the quarterback as a potential starting option in 2025 if Prescott does indeed leave. As solid as Rush was during his short stint as starter, he’d be a bridge option — not a long-term or even full-season option at quarterback.
The idea of the Cowboys showcasing Lance during the preseason in an effort to potentially acquire a draft pick via trade — even higher than the fourth-round pick they used to acquire him — has been floated by Athlon Sports’ Mike Fisher.
“Can he be showcased in preseason games to fuel a trade? To see if he can beat out Rush as the No. 2? To see if he merits a contract offer that might keep him here next year, whether Dak – heading into the final season of the four-year, $160 million deal he signed in 2021 and hoping for a gigantic extension – is still here or not?” Fisher says. “Yes. Those are all ‘yesses.'”
While this could be a potential reason why the Cowboys are playing up Lance in public comments, it should be a last resort. The desired result of the Lance trade should be him showing the ability to be a potential option as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback — not Dallas hoping they can acquire draft assets for him in a potential trade.
We’re two months away from training camp, but the Cowboys’ situation at quarterback is a major question mark after this season, Dallas should be hoping that Lance can prove capable of being an option at quarterback after the 2024 season.
