Highlights
- Trey Lance’s NFL career has faced setbacks since being hyped as a top prospect, leading to him fighting to revive his career with the Dallas Cowboys.
- Lance has reportedly secured a roster spot in 2024 with a $4.25M roster bonus from the Cowboys, offering him a chance to compete for the backup QB role.
- Despite being labeled a bust, Lance, at 23, retains his strong physical attributes and gained valuable experience learning from top coaches.
Trey Lance’s NFL career has been a winding road, going from über-hyped prospect to third overall pick to draft bust in a matter of two and a half years.
Now in Dallas after being unable to find his footing with the San Francisco 49ers, Lance is merely trying to resuscitate his stock before his career goes completely awry. On that front, Lance received some good news this week, as Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News reports that the team will pay out Lance’s $4.25 million roster bonus in March, securing his spot on the roster for the 2024 season.
Lance will earn $5.31 million total next season, which is an unusually large figure for a third-string quarterback. It stands to reason that Lance will have every opportunity to earn the backup role in training camp, though Watkins also notes that the team declined Lance’s $22.41 million fifth-year option for 2025 (as was expected).
With a roster spot secure, can Lance make good on the promise that once made him one of the best quarterbacks in a vaunted draft class?
NFL Free Agency: Full list of Dallas Cowboys free agents in 2024
Dallas doesn’t have many pending free agents, but the defending NFC East champions could lose some big-name talents, including a franchise icon.
Despite struggles and injuries, Lance is still young and talented
2024 will the North Dakota State product’s age-24 season
The 2021 NFL Draft class was known for its quarterbacks going into draft night. Three seasons removed, the quarterbacks are still the main story of the class, but for mostly the wrong reasons.
Trevor Lawrence struggled badly in his rookie year under Urban Meyer, and followed up a strong sophomore season with another letdown in 2023. Zach Wilson has been an outright disaster for the New York Jets, and he all but punched his ticket out of town with another disappointing performance last season. Justin Fields has shown middling signs of growth in his three years in Chicago, and now the Chicago Bears may ship him out of town with a chance to select Caleb Williams first overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. Mac Jones had a Pro Bowl rookie season with the New England Patriots, but he’s been arguably the worst performer of the group over the last two seasons.
Despite all of that, Lance has been the biggest bust of the class.
After the 49ers gave up a boatload to acquire him, including three first-round draft picks, Lance sat behind Jimmy Garoppolo in his rookie season. He was then named the 49ers’ starter for the 2022 season, which immediately got upended when he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks.
When Brock Purdy revealed himself to be more than capable of running Kyle Shanahan’s offense, Lance became expendable, and the Cowboys acquired him for a mere fourth-round pick last August.
Lance spent all of 2023 as the Cowboys’ third-string quarterback behind Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush. Prescott is working on a market-setting contract extension following an MVP-caliber campaign, while Rush is due $2.25 million in 2024.
|
Cowboys Backup QB Competition (Career Stats) |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stat |
Trey Lance |
Cooper Rush |
|
Games Played |
8 (4 starts) |
26 (6 starts) |
|
Completion % |
54.9% |
60.6% |
|
Passing Yards |
797 |
1,619 |
|
Passing TDs |
5 |
8 |
|
INTs |
3 |
5 |
|
Passer Rating |
84.5 |
83.6 |
Lance will now enter training camp in a competition with Rush for the Cowboys’ backup QB spot, and winning it could do wonders for his career. If Prescott finds himself injured again, or if the Cowboys find themselves in a number of blowouts, Lance could get his first NFL action since those opening weeks in 2022.
Though he’ll be entering his fourth NFL season, Lance is still just 23 years old. The elite athleticism, abundant arm strength and lightning quick reaction time that made him a top prospect still exists, and the year he spent learning on the bench under great offensive minds (Shanahan, Mike McCarthy) may have helped his processing and ability to read defenses.
Lance has a long road to climb to shed the bust label that’s been attached to him since the 49ers traded him to Dallas, but at least he knows he’ll have a home in the NFL in 2024.
Source: Calvin Watkins
All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless stated otherwise. All salary info via Spotrac.
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Dak Prescott finished with more passing yards and touchdowns in 2023 than Joe Burrow did the season before his record-setting QB contract.
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