Tag: Trey Lance

This Cowboys starter playing for job in Week 12 with backup breathing down his neck

Cooper Rush is on a week-to-week basis at QB because fan interest in the Cowboys dwindles by the day. | From @ReidDHanson

Dak Prescott is out for the season and Cooper Rush is the Cowboys starting quarterback. It was true the moment Prescott went down with a hamstring tear three weeks ago and it remains true after owner Jerry Jones affirmed as much earlier in the week when he said Rush gives Dallas “the best to win.”

But what was true yesterday and is true today isn’t necessarily true for tomorrow. No assurances were given by Jones that Rush would remain the starting QB beyond Week 12, and if the veteran backup puts up another uninspiring performance against the Commanders, a QB change could be in the cards for the Cowboys.

After passing for just 45 yards in Week 10, Rush bounced back with a 354-yard performance against the Texans a week later. Based on pure yardage his second game looked strong but in an effort that only produced 10 points, it was far from satisfactory. Rush averaged -0.25 EPA/play against Houston posting an embarrassing -12.1 completion percentage over expected (CPOE).

Trey Lance, the QB behind Rush, brings with him extremely modest expectations of his own. At no point in his Cowboys tenure has he looked like a capable NFL QB, and unless the offense fundamentally changes its scheme with him under center, he’s unlikely to be any better than the veteran ahead of him.

What’s working in Lance’s favor is the same thing working against Rush: Mystery. Cowboys’ fans know exactly what they have in Rush. The 31-year-old has played in 32 games with Dallas. He’s a bus driver type who can hit some big passes on occasion but generally needs a strong supporting cast around him to succeed. He had that in 2022 when he went 4-1 as a starter. He doesn’t have that in 2024 as he currently stands winless.

Lance, on the other hand, is more of a wild card. With so little film on record, Lance could perform a variety of different ways if given a chance to start. He may not be the pocket passer Rush is, but his athletic ability adds intrigue to a completely unintriguing offense.

As much as Jones talks about Rush giving the Cowboys “the best chance to win,” Jones’ actions as of late suggest winning isn’t always his highest priority. Fair or not as an accusation, the Cowboys willingly downgraded their roster over the past offseason. NFC East rivals like Philadelphia and Washington took big steps to improve while Dallas took big steps to cut costs. Throughout the last 12 months Jones has repeatedly spoke of the marketability of the franchise and how much he values being in the news.

Creating and maintaining fan interest has been Jones’ biggest challenge in 2024 and it’s a battle he’s currently losing less than a week away from the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving showcase on national television. If Rush can’t get things done at the QB position on Sunday, Lance may very well get the start on Thursday.

Boring is bad word to Jones and the Cowboys offense has been certifiably boring under Rush. Lance may be a disaster but at least he’s not boring.

The Cowboys have become Jerry Jones’ nightmare – boring – putting Cooper Rush on notice and Trey Lance on standby.

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Potential reason why Jerry Jones might not want this Cowboy to see the field

Here’s one theory why Jerry Jones might be on board with keeping Trey Lance on the sideline. | From @cdpiglet

This season has not gone the way the Dallas Cowboys hoped. The team didn’t play well early on, and then it snowballed as different injuries piled up every week, and the same mistakes reoccurred every game. Cooper Rush has started two blowout losses since Dak Prescott was placed on the shelf, and people are beginning to ask why Trey Lance isn’t getting his chance.

The case for Lance is easy to make regardless of if it’s on or off the field. Dallas has an offensive line decimated by injury. Tyler Guyton, Tyler Smith, and Zack Martin could all miss games, leaving a rookie at center and a struggling Terence Steele at right tackle. Lance’s mobility could help the offense by adding a threat to the Cowboys’ rushing attack and getting away from the opposing pass rush to make plays on the ground or through the air. Rush can’t do that.

Off the field, playing Lance would seem to make even more sense. Dallas could showcase the sixth youngest quarterback in the NFL behind Anthony Richardson, Drake Maye, C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, and Caleb Williams. He has been a bust so far, but lately, the NFL has shown that top prospects sometimes just needed time and the correct situation to flourish.

Former first-overall pick Baker Mayfield finally found his place in Tampa Bay. Sam Darnold is making a comeback on the Minnesota Vikings, and Geno Smith has made two Pro Bowls for the Seattle Seahawks. Considering that Lance is younger than three rookie quarterbacks, Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix, and Michael Penix, Jr., if he can show improvement and get one team intrigued, the Cowboys could earn a compensatory pick if he leaves in free agency.

So why are the Cowboys not putting him on the field?

Rush is possibly believed to be a much better player, and Mike McCarthy, in his final season, wants his best chance to win every week. After their loss to the Houston Texans, McCarthy said he wanted to play Lance but didn’t. Could this decision be made by the front office against McCarthy’s will? Jerry Jones had already told the media that Rush was starting against the Washington Commanders, and there could have been a sneaky reason for this.

What if Dallas sees all the reasons to play Lance, his age, his talent, and the late growth of other quarterbacks selected at the top of the draft, and they think Lance could be the next QB in line to bloom late? Instead of trying to showcase him, they are hiding him to keep his price down. He hasn’t shown a reason to be signed elsewhere in his time in Dallas, so if they hide him behind Rush, they could convince him and his agent to take a contract to develop here and possibly be ready to live up to his potential two or three seasons down the line when he will still be multiple years from turning 30.

Dallas was thinking this way when they traded a fourth-round pick for him and this could be a strategy for doubling down on that risk, hoping for a big reward in the future.

You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or YouTube on the Across the Cowboys Podcast.

 

Cowboys make decision at quarterback ahead of Week 12 at Commanders

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy names his starting QB vs. Commanders.

After a 3-2 start to the season, the Dallas Cowboys lost their fifth straight game on Monday night, falling 34-10 to the Houston Texans at home. Dallas is 0-5 at home, with opponents averaging over 37 points per game.

The Cowboys’ former defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, is now the head coach of the 7-4 Washington Commanders. On Sunday, Quinn’s Commanders host the reeling Cowboys.

With quarterback Dak Prescott out for the season, Cooper Rush has started for the Cowboys under center for the last two weeks. Even though Dallas has scored only 16 combined points in Rush’s two starts, he’ll get the call again this weekend at Washington.

While Rush will start, the Cowboys will have specific packages for quarterback Trey Lance.

Rush has appeared in four career games vs. Washington, including last season. He has one start against the Commanders, completing 15 of 27 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns in a 25-10 Dallas win in 2022.

Lance is a former No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. The Cowboys traded a fourth-round draft pick to the 49ers for Lance ahead of last season. Lance has appeared in one game this season for Dallas.

McCarthy sends Jerry Jones strong message with this defiant Week 11 decision

Jones has left McCarthy out to dry, so it’s no wonder the sole Week 11 “DNP-Coaches Decision” went the way it did. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys are not a good football team. Their 2024 season is over, and has been for several weeks. Entering Week 11, they had less than a three percent chance of making the playoffs, and after losing to the Houston Texans, 34-10, that now sits at less than one percent. With no healthy pass rushers the majority of the season, one healthy corner the majority of the season, an offensive line in disarray and now no franchise quarterback, the season is a wash.

The problem is, the coaching staff isn’t going to be around next year, so they have no real vested interest in making decisions that benefit the franchise in the long run. That was evident in the fact that head coach Mike McCarthy had Cooper Rush throwing the ball 55 times last night, while Trey Lance sat on the bench getting zero snaps.

The Cowboys’ offense was on the field for 83 snaps. Lance was literally the only active Cowboys player not to see the field on Monday night. 47 of 48 players all saw at least three snaps and 46 of them at least seven.

After the game, McCarthy paid lip service to the “mistake”, saying that’s the one thing he’d second guess himself on.

“I think the one thing I should have done at the end, and I just didn’t do, was put Trey in there. I could’ve gotten him a series. That’s one thing that I would second-guess myself on,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t want to get into putting him in for a play or two, because he’s more than a gadget player in my opinion. We had him prepared to take a series, and frankly there at the end I should’ve gave him that series, and I regret not doing that.” – via ProFootballTalk

Really?

McCarthy wants fans to believe he simply couldn’t figure out how to send Lance onto the field on any of the Cowboys’ final five drives? No. This was a message to owner and GM Jerry Jones that he gets what he asked for in the way the front office approached this season.

The Texans took a 17-point lead with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Dallas offense took 38 snaps from that point forward, and a lifelong coach simply couldn’t figure out that Lance should see the field?

Sorry, not buying it. There’s not much McCarthy can do to show defiance against the machine that will put him out to pasture come January, if not sooner.

Not playing Lance in Week 11 was absolutely one of them.

McCarthy sends Jerry Jones strong message with this defiant Week 11 decision

Jones has left McCarthy out to dry, so it’s no wonder the sole Week 11 “DNP-Coaches Decision” went the way it did. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys are not a good football team. Their 2024 season is over, and has been for several weeks. Entering Week 11, they had less than a three percent chance of making the playoffs, and after losing to the Houston Texans, 34-10, that now sits at less than one percent. With no healthy pass rushers the majority of the season, one healthy corner the majority of the season, an offensive line in disarray and now no franchise quarterback, the season is a wash.

The problem is, the coaching staff isn’t going to be around next year, so they have no real vested interest in making decisions that benefit the franchise in the long run. That was evident in the fact that head coach Mike McCarthy had Cooper Rush throwing the ball 55 times last night, while Trey Lance sat on the bench getting zero snaps.

The Cowboys’ offense was on the field for 83 snaps. Lance was literally the only active Cowboys player not to see the field on Monday night. 47 of 48 players all saw at least three snaps and 46 of them at least seven.

After the game, McCarthy paid lip service to the “mistake”, saying that’s the one thing he’d second guess himself on.

“I think the one thing I should have done at the end, and I just didn’t do, was put Trey in there. I could’ve gotten him a series. That’s one thing that I would second-guess myself on,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t want to get into putting him in for a play or two, because he’s more than a gadget player in my opinion. We had him prepared to take a series, and frankly there at the end I should’ve gave him that series, and I regret not doing that.” – via ProFootballTalk

Really?

McCarthy wants fans to believe he simply couldn’t figure out how to send Lance onto the field on any of the Cowboys’ final five drives? No. This was a message to owner and GM Jerry Jones that he gets what he asked for in the way the front office approached this season.

The Texans took a 17-point lead with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Dallas offense took 38 snaps from that point forward, and a lifelong coach simply couldn’t figure out that Lance should see the field?

Sorry, not buying it. There’s not much McCarthy can do to show defiance against the machine that will put him out to pasture come January, if not sooner.

Not playing Lance in Week 11 was absolutely one of them.

Cowboys QB fined for defensive effort vs Eagles; LB-on-LB foul also flagged

From @ToddBrock24f7: Trey Lance and Marist Liufau were both fined for plays made late in Week 10’s loss to Philadelphia. Both incidents had an unusual element.

The Cowboys got blown out by the Eagles in Week 10, but two Dallas players are losing a second time, six days after the fact.

Backup quarterback Trey Lance and rookie linebacker Marist Liufau were fined by the league for plays made during the team’s 34-6 defeat, it was announced Saturday.

Lance’s fine came, oddly, from a defensive play the passer made after a possession change. As Philadelphia safety Reed Blankenship returned Jake Ferguson’s fumble early in the fourth quarter, Lance met him near the Cowboys sideline and forced him out of bounds.

The NFL has determined that Lance improperly used his helmet to initiate the contact and fined him $22,511 for unnecessary roughness.

The play did not draw a flag from officials at the time but was notable to many for nearly taking out an already-injured Dak Prescott as he stood on the sideline, perhaps a little too close for the comfort of most observers.

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Liufau drew a $5,749 fine, also for unnecessary roughness, on a play that was unusual in its own right. The rookie was spotted grabbing the facemask of a fellow linebacker, Philadelphia’s Ben Van Sumeren, who was on the field with the Eagles offense as a backfield blocker.

That altercation took place away from the late second-down play and resulted in a penalty flag from officials, the Cowboys’ fifth of Sunday’s contest.

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Cowboys backup predicted to get $10 million contract in free agency

Could Trey Lance parlay the next eight games into a starting job in 2025? A premiere backup?

The Dallas Cowboys might not be able to resuscitate their playoff chances in 2024, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to salvage from the season. Dallas sits at 3-6 and will watch the rest of the league play their Week 11 games before they get a chance to take the field. While there’s still plenty of action left in the season, the Cowboys are likely playing for draft positioning, not playoff positioning.

But playing out the string can benefit individual players. Dallas has a ton of free agents who could be auditioning for either a new coaching staff in Dallas or a new franchise outside of the DFW. That includes quarterback Trey Lance. Sooner or later, the coaching staff is going to give Lance a shot at starting, though it won’t be in Week 11. But when he does, one outlet has confidence he’s going to play pretty well.

Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon identified the fifth-year quarterback as someone on the verge of making a name for himself in the writer’s 5 Bold Predictions for the rest of the 2024 season. Gagnon thinks Lance will take the opportunity afforded with Dak Prescott’s pending surgery, and run with it all the way to a lucrative contract in the offseason.

Right place, right time. The Cowboys have lost Dak Prescott for the remainder of the year, and Cooper Rush has been so bad that Trey Lance is bound to get some serious work down the stretch.

Surrounded by plenty of talent, look for the skilled 24-year-old to put on some shows just as his contract expires.

I’m not saying he’ll salvage his career, but the 2021 No. 3 pick is in the ideal environment to fire up some teams that might be desperate enough to believe he could be a late-blooming answer.

At the very least, Lance will do enough to earn a Sam Darnold-like top-tier backup contract as an insurance policy somewhere.

Related: Jones, McCarthy likely at odds over which QB should obviously start rest of 2024

A Sam Darnold like deal would net Lance around $10 million on a one-year contract to prove himself; that’s what the former Jet was provided to be the backup in Minnesota to a rookie QB. JJ McCarthy was lost for the year to injury and Darnold stepped in and has led the Vikings into the playoff picture, surprising many.

If Lance has that in him, then he will probably lose the Cowboys some draft slot positioning and earn them a 2026 compensatory pick.

Jones, McCarthy likely at odds over which QB should obviously start rest of 2024

The Cowboys would be better served starting Trey Lance over Cooper Rush the rest of 2024. But with the staff and FO in two different directions… | From @ReidDHanson

Trey Lance has been the third-string quarterback in Dallas for a reason. For as poorly as Cooper Rush just played in his first start of the season, he is still regarded as a better player than Lance. It’s why the Cowboys have already declared Rush the starter against the Texans in Week 11.

Timing, accuracy and decision making were all issues for Lance in the preseason. The battle for backup QB never really was a battle in the first place. Even on the heels of Rush’s 45-yard passing performance, the veteran is still likely the better QB of the two. Yet, regardless of that, the time to play Lance is now.

With the Cowboys playoff odds slipping below one percent, Dallas doesn’t have much to play for in 2024. Injuries, a lame duck coaching staff and an incomplete roster spelled doom from the start. Positioning themselves for a better tomorrow seems the new objective, and that involves playing Lance.

Whether Lance figures into the Cowboys future or not is not entirely important. At the moment he hasn’t shown he was the ability to be a viable back-up, let alone a starter somewhere. Without reps this season the Cowboys will likely just bid the former first rounder adieu in the offseason and get nothing in compensation. Playing him may produce the same result but it at least it has the potential to boost his value which could be beneficial in more ways than one.

One possible outcome is Lance might show just enough for the Cowboys to bring him back as a backup in 2025. Since both Lance and Rush are a free agents this March, Dallas is in the market for a backup, so why not kick the tires on someone already with the organization?

Another possible outcome if Lance plays is a different team likes what they see and signs him away from Dallas in free agency. Such a situation has the potential to give the Cowboys a compensatory pick in 2026. It probably wouldn’t be very high but even a late Day 3 addition is better than nothing.

Or maybe Lance just falls flat on his face and tanks his value further. Even that isn’t as bad as it sounds since his current value is regarded as below compensatory anyway. All it would do is sink Dallas lower in the standings this season giving the Cowboys a higher pick in the draft. Playing Lance for the sole reason of tanking isn’t a very noble attitude, but playing him for the possible benefits is both noble and wise.

If 2024 is really about evaluating talent and working for a better team in 2025 then Lance and a few other down roster players should be seeing more opportunities. Given the goals are no longer perfectly aligned between the lame duck coaching staff (wants to win today because there is no tomorrow) and the front office (ownership is always thinking long term) there’s a good chance this many never happen. That would be a mistake.

Even though Rush appears the better QB of the two, there’s still a compelling case to be made Lance should be starting the rest of the way.

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McCarthy reveals Cowboys’ Week 11 QB plan; report names third-stringer to be added

From @ToddBrock24f7: Cooper Rush will remain the starter vs Houston, per the coach. A late report says Will Grier is being signed to the team’s practice squad.

Cooper Rush turned in dreadful numbers during Sunday’s 34-6 pounding at the hands of the Eagles, but the poor stats won’t keep him from getting his second consecutive start next Monday night when the Cowboys host the Houston Texans to close out Week 11.

Head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed that the team would be moving forward this week with Rush as QB1, ostensibly leaving Trey Lance as the backup once again.

But a third quarterback is on the way, the coach explained in his Monday afternoon press conference, though he declined to share details about who it is.

“I’m just going to let him go through the process and make sure everything goes well,” McCarthy said, “but we’re in the process of signing one.”

NBC5 sports director Newy Scruggs reports that it is Will Grier, the 2019 third-round draft pick out of West Virginia who served as a backup in Dallas in 2021 and 2022. Grier, 29, was released by the Eagles on Nov. 7. He’ll join the practice squad.

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Rush, the seventh-year veteran who came in to the Week 10 divisional clash with a 5-1 record as the Cowboys starter, struggled to get anything going against Philadelphia. Per 96.7 The Ticket’s Matt McClearin, his 45 passing yards were the third-fewest by a Cowboys quarterback in a game with 20 or more attempts in franchise history.

The Cowboys teased the possibility of a special package of plays for Lance, the former first-round draft pick whose athleticism has made him a 14-month developmental project in Dallas. (Grier was cut after acquiring Lance in a 2023 trade.) Lance ended up taking 15 offensive snaps Sunday, going 4-of-6 passing for 21 yards and an interception.

Combined, Rush and Lance threw for just 66 yards on the day and had a team passer rating of 49.1.

Starter Dak Prescott was in New York on Monday to meet with a specialist about the partial hamstring avulsion he suffered in Week 9. Surgery is reportedly scheduled for Wednesday pending the results of that consultation and would put Prescott on a recovery timetable of about three months.

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Will Trey Lance play in 2nd half of Cowboys-Eagles?

The Dallas Cowboys’ offense is struggling mightily in their first game without Dak Prescott. There’s a vocal minority of Cowboys fans who have always believed that Prescott is holding the team back, and much of their evidence was the way the team …

The Dallas Cowboys’ offense is struggling mightily in their first game without Dak Prescott. There’s a vocal minority of Cowboys fans who have always believed that Prescott is holding the team back, and much of their evidence was the way the team played in 2022 when he missed five games early in the season.

Cooper Rush came in and the team won four games in a row with him under center. Despite Rush putting up pedestrian stats and being very lucky to avoid interceptions up until running into a three-pick game in a bad loss to Philadelphia, the narrative was spun. In this iteration, it may be time to see what the third-string QB can do.

Rush finished the first half with just 36 passing yards, no scores and an inexcusable fumble that gifted the Eagles their first touchdown of the game. Rush has shorted several throws and also been lucky not to have an interception.

With Prescott likely out for the remainder of the season, the Cowboys will soon decide what is the purpose of the 2024 season where the coaching staff are almost all on the final years of their deal. Longterm considerations may not win out over trying to prove worth to future employers, making the starting QB decision more complicated than it might need to be.

Lance hasn’t had any regular season action since being acquired by the Cowboys last summer. The former No. 3 overall selection busted out in San Francisco before Dallas acquired him.

Dallas trails 14-6 at the break in Week 10.