Trey Lance of the San Francisco 49ers leaves the field after defeating the Houston Texans 23-7 at Levi’s Stadium on Jan. 2, 2022, in Santa Clara, Calif.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
The embattled No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft is headed to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. Ian Rapoport added that the Cowboys would take on the rest of the third-year quarterback’s salary.
This marks the end of the Lance experiment in San Francisco. After sending a cornucopia of picks for the No. 3 spot in the draft two years ago, the Niners selected Lance in the hopes of turning him and his raw athletic talent into a bona fide NFL starter. Through a combination of injuries and the emergence of Brock Purdy, his opportunities to reach those heights, at least in San Francisco, faded fast.
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Any chance he’d be a truly active member of the Niners this season came and went Wednesday, when the team announced that he would be the third-string quarterback behind Purdy and second-stringer Sam Darnold. Lance missed practice in response to this decision.
Both head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch mentioned over the past couple of days that they wanted to keep Lance around, but that they’d be happy to send the quarterback somewhere he’d be able to flourish. ESPN’s Adam Schefter repeated this notion on Thursday, comparing Lance to an adoptable puppy.
“Really hard day,” Lynch said on the team’s preseason broadcast on KPIX during Friday night’s exhibition finale. “Such a wonderful young man. We took a shot and it didn’t work out. We own that. We take accountability for it. I think his story is very much unwritten. I’m excited for Trey. Dallas stepped up and really wanted him and they came after him. I think it will be a great landing spot for him.
“I can tell everybody it wasn’t for a lack of effort on Trey’s part or on our part,” Lynch said. “Circumstances took hold and he struggled through injuries. This team is ready to win. We like our quarterback room. We like Brock Purdy a lot, we like Sam Darnold and we like Brandon Allen. We wish Trey all the best in Dallas and we’ll always care about that young man and admire his work ethic and the person that he is.”
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The question now becomes whether Dallas can provide Lance the opportunity to grow in the NFL. The Cowboys already have an established starter with Dak Prescott, but also have a serviceable backup in Cooper Rush. Unless Lance is competing directly against Rush in the final week of the preseason, it’s hard to see how Lance isn’t just back in the same position he was with the Niners, but in a different city. Shanahan and Lynch meanwhile can sigh a breath of relief now that their team’s quarterback room is no longer of major media interest, for now.
Lance threw for 797 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions in eight games (four starts) with the Niners over his two seasons with the team.
This developing news story has been updated.