Trey Lance eager to return to field in Cowboys preseason opener

Sometime Sunday in a game against the Los Angeles Rams, Trey Lance will take his first snap in a competitive game as a Cowboys quarterback.

In fact, he hasn’t played a down since last August, back when he was with the 49ers. He wasn’t thinking that he’d be moving to the Cowboys. Rather, he was lined up behind Brock Purdy, hoping to get his old starting job back. Then the 49ers, surprisingly, dealt Lance to Dallas for a fourth-round pick. It was too late in the preseason for the former No. 3 pick of the 2021 NFL Draft to see any action. Then he didn’t play at all last fall.

These days, he’s competing with Cooper Rush to be Dak Prescott‘s backup. And since the 31-year-old Prescott likely won’t play much, if at all, this preseason, the Cowboys will give Lance a healthy dose of snaps in these three August games.

He’s not thinking about the pressure of the moment. Don’t let it get too big and all that motivational stuff.

“I’m going into this game the same as I’ve gone into every other game my whole entire life — college, high school,” Lance told reporters after Friday’s practice in Oxnard, Calif. “I don’t think that I’ll put too much extra in it. I’m not gonna play any harder than I have in the past, or not harder.

“Big game for me. Big game for us so I’m excited to go out there and play well.”

Other quarterbacks have tried to dislodge Rush from his second-team role on the Cowboys offense. He signed with the team as an undrafted free agent in 2017. Rush spent a few weeks away from the team in 2020. But he’s served as Prescott’s primary backup for much of the last seven years. He also has started six games in Prescott’s absence.

But it’s worth a try to take a look at Lance. Because of the Covid interruptions in college football in 2020, Lance didn’t play much at North Dakota State. He redshirted in 2018. And he was brilliant in 2019, leading the Bison to the NCAA FCS title. Lance then played only one game in 2020. Based solely on potential, rhe 49ers sent three first-round picks to the Dolphins to trade up for Lance to select him No. 3 in 2021. Lance kicked off the 2022 season as the starter, but suffered a season-ending ankle injury. Later in the fall, Purdy took control and Lance eventually became expendable.

So surely Sunday’s game against the Rams will mean something more. The backup spot is one the line. Plus, Prescott is entering his final season with the Cowboys if Dallas doesn’t renew his contract.

“It’s just playing ball,” Lance said. “Not really thinking too much about it. I’ve had a lot of reps with these guys, so I’m excited to go out and run the offense well.”

And Lance also can be auditioning for other NFL teams. You never know. But again, he’s not thinking that way.

“I think everything works out how it’s supposed to,” Lance said. “That’s the truth. I believe I’m where I’m supposed to be. I live in the present, one day at a time, taking it one meeting and one marker at a time; and controlling what I can control.”