For better or worse, Jerry Jones owns full accountability on results of Trey Lance trade (2024)

OXNARD, Calif. — When Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was asked Monday if the team was starting to think about decisions for the 53-man roster, the reporter didn’t even get through the entire question.

“No. No,” McCarthy said. “We’re not there yet. We’re not there yet.”

The next day, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones met with the media on the practice fields. Jones guaranteed the inclusion of at least one player currently on the fringe of the final roster.

“Do I need to see any more from Trey Lance?” Jones said, repeating the question asked to him. “Can we stop there? The answer is yes. Yes. He’s going to be on the 53.”

Lance, the Cowboys’ third-string quarterback who was acquired for a fourth-round pick at the end of last year’s preseason, has had an uneven training camp. In practices, Lance has often been slow with his reads and inconsistent with his accuracy. He had a subpar preseason debut in Los Angeles but followed it up with progress in the second preseason game in Las Vegas. Jones guaranteeing a roster spot to Lance isn’t terribly surprising, considering Lance’s $5.31 million cap hit is fully guaranteed.

The unwavering support from Jones, though, is a reminder of who carries all the accountability.

It’s been almost exactly one year that Jones would not let the San Francisco 49ers hang up the phone until a deal was in place to send Lance to Dallas. It was Aug. 25, 2023, the evening before the Cowboys’ final preseason game at home against the Las Vegas Raiders, that the Cowboys agreed to send their 2024 fourth-round pick for the 23-year-old quarterback.

“We didn’t waste any time,” Jones said last year. “The minute we knew they were serious about trading him, we didn’t want the phone to hang up.”

On the surface, bringing in a young, raw talent such as Lance — he had four NFL starts and 102 regular-season pass attempts to his name — for a fourth-round pick sounds like good business. Lance was just two years removed from being the No. 3 overall pick, and the Cowboys had a second-round grade on him when he was coming out in the draft in 2021.

The contract situation with Lance was always the curious part. Given the timing of his arrival, his third NFL season was bound to be a wash — and it was. Lance was inactive for the entire 2023 season as QB3 in Dallas. When it was time to make a decision on his fifth-year option, the Cowboys had to decline because they hadn’t seen anything from him.

If Dak Prescott faltered in 2023, perhaps Lance was a possibility for the future. But in his eighth season, Prescott had arguably his best year in the NFL and finished runner-up in MVP voting. Even with a giant stinker in the playoffs, given his performance and looming cap hit, an extension for Prescott felt inevitable.

That has yet to materialize.

In the risk-reward equation, the reward for the Lance trade for Dallas was always contingent on him having a great 2024 preseason. Perhaps then, the Cowboys could feel fairly confident about a potential future with him under center, or they could flip him in a trade to immediately upgrade the roster, or get a higher draft pick than what they gave up to acquire him.

That hasn’t materialized, either.

The risk part of the risk-reward equation is the current reality. The Cowboys have three quarterbacks on the roster for 2024 and nobody under contract for 2025. One guy is a consistent performer in the regular season, another is a fortified NFL backup and the third — Lance — carries question marks of where he fits on a quality NFL depth chart, if at all.

An optimist could have looked at Lance’s situation in Dallas as a chance for him to learn the ropes behind Prescott and be mentored by McCarthy. The Cowboys’ head coach has a history of positive results with quarterbacks, from the more popular partnerships of the tail end of Brett Favre, the bulk of Aaron Rodgers’ career and the prime of Prescott, to the typically more forgotten success with Aaron Brooks in New Orleans at the turn of the century.

The reason to bring up McCarthy’s history is to reinforce Jones’ significant part in this saga. If Lance falters, he’ll join a long line of quarterbacks who Jones assessed quite poorly in the 21st century.

Remember Quincy Carter, the guy Jones was so confident would carry the torch in the post-Troy Aikman era? Or Chad Hutchinson, who Jones handed a seven-year contract to, including a hefty bag of guaranteed money, despite him not playing football the five years prior? Or Drew Henson, who the Cowboys gave up a third-round pick for, which resulted in one start and a quick flame-out? Or Paxton Lynch and Connor Cook, two guys the Cowboys pursued in the 2016 draft?

It’s the kind of evaluation at the most important position in the sport that would cost most general managers their job.

Jones was rescued by Sean Payton’s guy, Tony Romo, during the wilderness years of the early 2000s. He fell into Prescott after wishing for Lynch, who Jones said had “the highest upside” in the 2016 draft, and Cook. Lynch started four NFL games while Cook never started one, and neither of them were in the NFL after 2017.

To be fair, one can’t operate in hindsight. Though the timing was curious because of the contract, many viewed the trade for Lance favorably. Perhaps Jones’ history of evaluating quarterbacks, and where he places his convictions at the position, should have been a more prevalent thought.

Lamenting over the lost fourth-round pick in 2024 is understandable, and is often done in the context of picking a running back. It’s a reasonable sentiment, but the Cowboys showed no signs that they would have addressed that position there, even if they had the selection. Jones views Lance as the fourth-round pick, which is a flawed line of thinking because he doesn’t have four years remaining on a rookie deal.

The story on Lance’s time in Dallas isn’t over yet — Jones quickly established that this week. But the early returns haven’t been great. However, and whenever, it ends, Jones is the one who is responsible, for better or worse.

(Top photo of Trey Lance: Harry How / Getty Images)

Saad Yousuf is a staff writer covering the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Stars. He also works at 96.7/1310 The Ticket in Dallas after five years at ESPN Dallas radio. Prior to The Athletic, Saad covered the Cowboys for WFAA, the Mavericks for Mavs.com and a variety of sports at The Dallas Morning News, ESPN.com and SB Nation. Follow Saad on Twitter @SaadYousuf126