No matter what San Francisco 49ers said this week about their desire to keep Trey Lance, you knew the quarterback was gone the moment it was announced Sam Darnold had beaten out the third-overall pick in the 2021 draft for the backup role to Brock Purdy.
The only questions were how quickly Lance would be traded and where he would end up? The answers came Friday evening when it was reported Lance was headed to Dallas for a fourth-round pick.
Lance’s landing spot comes as a surprise given that Dak Prescott is the Cowboys’ starter and is under contract through 2024. Dallas also has one of the NFL’s better backup quarterbacks in Cooper Rush.
The Vikings, who reportedly discussed a Lance trade in the spring with San Francisco, had been considered a potential front-runner for the 23-year-old from Marshall, Minn. That made more sense than Dallas, given Vikings starter Kirk Cousins is in the final season of his contract, Nick Mullens isn’t the long-term solution and Jaren Hall is an unproven fifth-round pick.
Lance, who is two years younger than Hall, also is unproven, but he might have been worth a chance (given the low price) for a team with so much uncertainty at quarterback after this season. Adding Lance would have given Vikings coach and chief quarterback evaluator Kevin O’Connell a look at a guy the 49ers thought enough of that they traded three first-round picks and a third-round selection to Miami for the right to draft him.
Lance already is being called a bust by many, but there remains a big unknown to his game. He played in only 19 games in three years at NDSU, including one in the COVID-19-impacted 2020 season, and was in just eight games (four starts) in two seasons with San Francisco.
The 49ers gave him the job in 2022, but he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2. Purdy, the last pick of the 2022 draft, eventually emerged as the 49ers’ quarterback of the future and when Lance struggled in the preseason he was as good as gone.
Maybe O’Connell had lost interest in Lance, or the Vikings thought the price tag was too high. That could have applied to the fourth-round pick or the fact the Niners weren’t willing to pick up more of Lance’s salary. The Cowboys will pay Lance’s guaranteed salaries of $940,000 for 2023 and $5.3 million for 2024, according to ESPN, and then have the right to decide on whether to exercise Lance’s fifth-year option for 2025.
As far as the Vikings go, the future of their quarterback situation remains a mystery. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah opted against trying to extend Cousins’ contract in March, and Cousins sounded comfortable with revisiting the situation when free agency opens next year.
Adofo-Mensah has given Vikings fans little to go on when it comes to his strategy for retaining his players. There have been no new deals for wide receiver Justin Jefferson or tight end T.J. Hockenson and Pro Bowl pass rusher Danielle Hunter only got a new contract for this season when he staged a hold-in at the beginning of training camp to protest his low pay for 2023.
So do the Vikings have a plan at quarterback or is Adofo-Mensah in jeopardy of outsmarting himself? The Vikings aren’t going to be bad enough to get a top three pick in the draft next April and, if Cousins leaves, it’s hard to believe Hall is going to be ready to step in.
This isn’t to say Lance would have been the heir apparent, but his presence would have created another option for a team that looks like they might need a few, unless the plan all along has been to stick with the 35-year-old Cousins and give him one last big payday.
