After the Dallas Cowboys started this season 3-7, they won four of their next five games, even after losing starting quarterback Dak Prescott for the year due to a hamstring injury, but it was too little, too late.
They are eliminated from playoff contention, and they will play the Washington Commanders, a team that is looking to hold onto the sixth seed in the NFC, this weekend.
This final game for Dallas seems pretty meaningless, especially since a win may not improve head coach Mike McCarthy’s chances of holding onto his job moving forward, and thus it could provide a significant opportunity for a forgotten man on their roster.
Per Ian Rapoport, third-string quarterback Trey Lance is expected to receive significant snaps versus Washington.
From 2022 through 17 weeks of 2024, Trey Lance has thrown a grand total of 20 passes. He may eclipse that total on Sunday. Big opportunity for him on Sunday. https://t.co/6DcgzTv0Ak
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 4, 2025
Cooper Rush, the Cowboys’ second-string quarterback, is expected to start once again, but Lance could play a meaningful amount of football for the first time in a long time.
He was the No. 3 pick in the 2021 draft, and he was such an intriguing prospect that the San Francisco 49ers traded away a lot of draft capital in order to be able to take him at No. 3.
He barely played as a rookie, but he showed enough promise to get Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan to name him the starter ahead of the 2022 season.
Alas, Lance suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2, and nearly a calendar year later, he was traded to Dallas for a fourth-round draft pick.
To this point in his life, Lance, 24, has played little organized football — he lost nearly an entire season in college due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he has appeared in just 11 NFL games and attempted a total of 109 passes.
There is an old saying that potential has a shelf life, and if Lance is to still realize his potential, he needs to start playing on a consistent basis.