Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the acquisition of quarterback Trey Lance was not influenced in any way by the lack of contract negotiations with current QB1 Dak Prescott.
Jones made the comments before the Cowboys’ final preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday. The Cowboys acquired Lance from the San Francisco 49ers on Friday.
“Didn’t cross my mind, period, about an impact here regarding Dak,” Jones told reporters. “I know that Dak wants to do anything we can do to improve this team and we’re going to do it. The facts are that the decision to bring in as high a quality of talent as we could, that’s involving young talent … that’s something that we’ve been trying to do, just never the opportunity seems to be there.”
Further, Jones said he did not give a heads up to Prescott or Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy about the trade.
The Cowboys signed Prescott to a four-year, $160 million extension in March 2021 and he’ll carry a $59.45 million cap hit in 2024. The Cowboys would like to extend Prescott but there have been no substantive talks, ESPN reported.
Jones said the Cowboys have liked Lance since the 2021 draft, when the Niners moved up from No. 12 to select Lance No. 3 overall.
“And so we felt good about him with the evaluation we had for him at the draft. We felt good about what we’ve seen, tape that he’s had since he’s been in the NFL,” Jones said.
The Cowboys will carry three QBs on their 53-man roster, with Cooper Rush also locked in.
Lance was lined up to be San Francisco’s starter in 2022 before fracturing his right ankle in the second game of the season. The injury, which included ligament damage, required two surgeries — the second to remove hardware from the first that was causing irritation in the ankle.
Lance has appeared in just eight games (four starts) over his first two seasons, completing 56 of 102 passes for 797 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions.
–Field Level Media