Report: Cowboys to decline fifth-year option for former 49ers QB Lance originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
Former 49ers quarterback Trey Lance still faces an uncertain future in the NFL, but one thing about his tumultuous journey became clearer on Wednesday.
The Dallas Cowboys will refuse to take the fifth-year option on Lance’s contract for 2025, ESPN’s Todd Archer reported, citing a source, noting that picking up the option would have cost Dallas $22.4 million fully guaranteed.
The 49ers selected Lance No. 3 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, and his tenure in San Francisco was marred by injuries before being cut short by Brock Purdy’s emergence as a starter. Before the start of the 2023 NFL regular season, the 49ers traded Lance to the Cowboys for a 2024 fourth-round draft pick, which the team used to select security Malik Mustapha at 124th overall last week.
Lance appeared in just eight games (four starts) in two seasons with the 49ers, and arrived in Dallas immediately behind Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush on the depth chart. O 23 year old was inactive for all 17 Cowboys games during the 2023 NFL season, and he will now compete with Rush for Dallas’ backup job this summer.
Between the coronavirus pandemic and injuries, Lance last played in 2019 for North Dakota State. But he’s not the only quarterback in the 2021 draft class to struggle — the only one from that group to have his fifth-year option picked up was Jacksonville Jaguars star Trevor Lawrence, the No. 1 overall pick.
Despite Lance’s bad luck thus far, his former 49ers teammate Trent Williams said in October that he believes the young quarterback will find his way back to the starting role.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Williams told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, “but I think in this league, when you do the right things and you’re made of the right stuff, eventually opportunity will find its way back. for you.
“And I think that will happen in Trey’s case. And when that happens, we will all see the talent that everyone knows is within him.”
The clock is certainly ticking on Lance’s window of opportunity. And while it seems like every summer has been hit or miss for Lance, he certainly has something to prove heading into the 2024 season.
