Cowboys’ trade for Trey Lance is opportunistic — and straight out of Eagles’

David Helman

Dallas Cowboys Insider

Maybe the decision-makers in the Cowboys front office got tired of all the high praise for their rivals to the northeast.

That’s what it feels like on Friday night, in the immediate aftermath of their trade for Trey Lance. As the dust settles and we work to figure out what it all means, the first conclusion is that it feels exactly like something the Philadelphia Eagles would do.

We’ve seen this for years from Howie Roseman, the general manager in Philadelphia who seizes on any opportunity to exploit a market inefficiency and take a chance on improving his team. That seems to be the gameplan for the Cowboys, who are shipping a fourth-round pick to San Francisco in exchange for Lance, the No. 3 overall pick in the draft just two years ago.

It’s always going to raise eyebrows when a team with a franchise quarterback takes a proactive measure to acquire a new one, but let’s put Dak Prescott on the back burner for a second. Independent of Prescott’s situation, the business of the trade just makes sense.

Even with his career at a crossroads, Lance is a gamble worth making — especially at this price. By ceding just one fourth-round pick in the deal, the Cowboys are holding onto all of their top 100 selections in next year’s draft, and the $6.25 million guaranteed on the next two years of Lance’s deal would slot him as roughly the team’s 20th-most-expensive player. These aren’t exactly assets Dallas will miss if things don’t work out.

On the flip side, Lance is still just 23 years old as he enters his third NFL season. The size, athleticism and arm strength that prompted the 49ers to move mountains to draft him is still there.

The elephant in the room is an astounding lack of experience. To this point, he has attempted fewer than 200 NFL passes — and that includes preseason snaps. Combine that with a brief college career that saw him play only 19 games for North Dakota State, including just one appearance during his COVID-shortened 2020 season, and San Francisco’s audacity comes into clearer focus. 

None of that is Lance’s fault, mind you. The bottom line is he’s an unusually raw prospect whose development was derailed first by injury, and then by the unlooked-for emergence of Brock Purdy as an effective starter.

From here, there’s not much downside. He comes to a Cowboys organization that has a strong culture, a veteran locker room and two seasoned quarterbacks he can learn from.

The educated guess here is that — for the time being, at least — Lance will serve as a high-profile third-stringer. There is no doubt he’s more talented than Cooper Rush, but he’d be hard-pressed to quickly overcome Rush’s seven years of experience with the offense and the organization.

But it will be fun to see if the Cowboys can think of any other ways to use their new acquisition. Lance checks in at a hefty 6-3, 224 pounds and he can run. In just eight appearances for the 49ers, he ran the rock 54 times for 235 yards. He…