Last year the San Francisco 49ers shocked everyone by giving up on former No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance after just two seasons to send him to the Dallas Cowboys. Lance wound up riding the pine all year, throwing no passes in 2023.
So it should be no surprise what the Cowboys’ decision on Lance’s rookie contract is.
According to ESPN’s Todd Archer, the Cowboys intend to decline the fifth-year option on Lance’s contract. As a result, he will become a free agent after this season.
“Unsurprisingly, the Dallas Cowboys will decline to pick up the fifth-year option on quarterback Trey Lance, a source told ESPN,” Archer wrote.
“That decision was essentially made in August when the Cowboys acquired Lance from the San Francisco 49ers for a 2024 fourth-round pick. Had the Cowboys picked up the option, it would have cost $22.4 million, been fully guaranteed and been at odds with the club’s stated preference of keeping Dak Prescott after 2024.”
Lance played eight games in two seasons with the 49ers, completing 54.9-percent of his passes for 797 yards and five touchdowns with three interceptions, plus 235 rushing yards and one more touchdown on the ground. He was 2-2 as a starter.
The Cowboys traded a fourth-round pick for Lance last season despite a very small overall body of work and some fairly significant injuries. By contrast, several other quarterbacks who were far more productive yielded far less when the teams that drafted them traded them.
If Lance doesn’t play for the Cowboys at all in 2024 – which is the ideal situation given what a downgrade Lance is from starter Dak Prescott – the Cowboys will have given up a fourth-round pick and not gotten so much as a single start from him.