The Dallas Cowboys 2024 season is mercifully coming to an end. There are now just eight days and two games remaining on the schedule, with the club being eliminated from the playoffs last week before they took to the field. The coaching staff, led by Mike McCarthy, deserves kudos for keeping the team engaged despite this fate being pretty much inevitable since early November.
Dallas started out with a 3-7 record, but they fought for four wins in their last five games with the only defeat being a fluke, bone-headed late game screwup on a special teams play. With the club not being mathematically eliminated until Week 16, they approached their roster from the perspective of winning being the most important thing.
Even though they were eliminated before they took the field against Tampa Bay last week, their week of preparation was done with the possibility they could still pull off a miracle. That hope is gone now, and it may impact whether or not fans get a regular-season glimpse of backup QB Trey Lance.
Dallas sent a fourth-round pick to San Francisco in exchange for Lance, who was the No. 3 overall pick in 2021 for the 49ers. He wa unable to unseat Cooper Rush for the role of Dak Prescott’s backup and now is just eight days away from the end of his contract.
The Cowboys have never tried to utilize his skillset as a running threat, not even in the vein of how the New Orleans Saints have deployed Taysom Hill over the years.
The offseason was a maddening experience for the fanbase, as the club failed to not only avoid signing any impact free agents from the outside, but also failed to bring back many of their own. With contract extensions looming over their biggest stars in Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons, the coaching staff were all on lame duck status.
All in all, it forced several fans to be lose interest in the brand. One thing that united fans, though, especially under the looming 2025 of Prescott (at the time) was whether or not Lance had what it took to be the next franchise quarterback. Acquired towards the end of the 2023 offseason, Lance didn’t play that year, so no one really knew what to expect from him.
As head coach Mike McCarthy avoids playing his stars in the preseason, Lance got plenty of snaps in the exhibitions and acquitted himself relatively well until the final performance when he bombed. He really hasn’t been seen since, which in a lost season where Prescott has been out with injury has frustrated fans even more.
Nothing crystalized this animosity more than in Week 11, when in a blowout loss to the Houston Texans where Cooper Rush struggled mightily, McCarthy refused to let Lance get snaps.
Now eliminated, the subject returns.
Lance is a free agent, as is current starter Cooper Rush, in 2025. Rush’s ceiling is obvious; the offense is ridiculously dumbed down due to his arm talent limitations and lack of athleticism. Lance offers upside in that regard, with nowhere near the polish or experience Rush brings to the table. But with nothing to play for but intel, there’s no reason not to give Lance snaps that count.