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The Cowboys, of course, gave away a fourth-round NFL draft pick back in August 2023 for the rights to 49ers bust quarterback Trey Lance. He had been the No. 3 pick in the 2021 draft, so it made sense that teams around the NFL had an interest in him, despite the fact that he had played only eight games in two seasons for the 49ers, making four starts.
The player the 49ers chose, Malik Mustapha, has gotten time for San Francisco, and has logged a grade of 67.2 as a rookie safety, which ranks him 29th out of 89 safeties in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus. And he’s only 22.
Picked right after Mustapha was Bucky Irving out of Oregon. All Irving has done is put up 831 yards from scrimmage in 11 games, dramatically bolstering a previously weak Buccaneers run game.
It would be useless, then, to pretend that the Cowboys gave up virtually nothing for Lance. Instead, they’ve gotten nothing out of Lance. If the expectation was that Lance could be a negotiating ploy as the team weighed a new contract for star quarterback Dak Prescott, that fell utterly flat, as Prescott still landed a record-breaking new contract.
Now, with Prescott out, Lance still can’t even get on the field, buried behind QB2 on the roster, Cooper Rush.
Cowboys’ Cooper Rush Has Knee Injury
Rush does have a mysterious knee injury and was listed on the team’s injury report, but the expectation is that he still will play in the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving game against the Giants. But should he? In what has been a mostly lost season, it remains baffling that the Cowboys won’t put Lance on the field.
At Bleacher Report, in sizing up what the Cowboys ought to do heading into Week 13, there was no suggested signing or transaction: There was only Trey Lance.
Under a category titled, “Move to Make Now,” B/R wrote: “Allow Trey Lance to Start.”
That, despite Sunday’s win over the Commanders. “A divisional win is nice, but it’s not getting Dallas back into the playoff mix. Yet franchise owner Jerry Jones isn’t willing to give quarterback and 2023 trade acquisition Trey Lance a starting opportunity … ” B/R noted.
“Jones has made plenty of mistakes since the start of the offseason, and not starting Lance is another. The Cowboys surrendered a fourth-round pick to acquire the quarterback, and it would be wise to see if he can offer anything as a long-term depth player before he becomes a free agent in 2025.”