SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Roughly two and a half of years after the San Francisco 49ers drafted him to be their franchise quarterback, Trey Lance’s time with the crew is over.
Sources instructed ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the Niners agreed to alternate Lance to the Dallas Cowboys in alternate for a fourth-round draft replace on Friday evening.
The deal puts a cap on a whirlwind 48 hours wherein Lance became told that Sam Darnold had overwhelmed him out for the No. 2 quarterback job within the aid of starter Brock Purdy, didn’t take part in Wednesday’s put collectively after which returned to the crew facility Thursday morning. Lance became slated to play in San Francisco’s exhibition finale in opposition to the Los Angeles Chargers on Friday evening however as a replace will head to Dallas to be half of his contemporary crew.
Talking to KNBR radio Thursday morning, Niners total manager John Lynch acknowledged he believed the “seemingly” result would be Lance staying in San Francisco. But he furthermore illustrious that if a deal can be worked out in other locations, the Niners would accommodate a alternate for Lance.
“If we can procure a landing scrape for Trey that is a truly correct one for him and works for our group, that is never any longer something that we would turn a blind peek to,” Lynch acknowledged.
Lance is scheduled to make $940,000 in 2023 and has a $5.3 million salary in 2024, all of which is guaranteed. Upon procuring and selling him, the Niners will incur pointless cash hits of $8,361,434 this three hundred and sixty five days and $5,540,956 in 2024.
After this season, Dallas will come by to mediate on Lance’s fifth-three hundred and sixty five days possibility for 2025.
Trade talks surrounded Lance all offseason after he suffered a damaged proper ankle in Week 2 of remaining season, and Purdy staked his jabber to the initiating job with a finishing flourish down the stretch.
When the Niners signed Darnold in March, coach Kyle Shanahan indicated Lance and Darnold would compete for the No. 2 job within the aid of Purdy. But Lynch furthermore acknowledged that he obtained alternate curiosity in Lance sooner than the draft in April, noting that it would device discontinuance something gargantuan so that you just could perhaps piece with him.
That mark dropped as soon as Lance became demoted to the No. 3 scrape Wednesday, because the Niners started fielding calls from utterly different teams. And on Friday, a take care of the Cowboys became accomplished.
The addition of Lance doesn’t diminish the Cowboys’ belief in Dak Prescott however provides them some cover for the future at the very least.
Prescott is signed by map of 2024 and is decided to count $59 million in opposition to the salary cap subsequent three hundred and sixty five days. Owner and total manager Jerry Jones has talked about looking out to expand Prescott’s contract however there has no longer been great dialogue relating to a contemporary deal.
The Cowboys went by map of a replace of quarterbacks after Troy Aikman’s retirement sooner than Tony Romo went from an undrafted participant to Pro Bowler in 2006.
The Cowboys selected Prescott within the fourth round in 2016 no longer anticipating him to become a starter however Romo suffered a aid hurt that preseason and Prescott has been the starter ever since.
Prescott became 30 remaining month and has passed over games every of the remaining three seasons. He tied for the NFL lead in interceptions remaining three hundred and sixty five days with 15 in 12 games. He passed over five starts after struggling a damaged proper thumb within the season opener.
On Thursday, he acknowledged this is as wholesome as he’s felt in years, now three years eliminated from a dislocated and fractured proper ankle. In 2021, he passed over one sport with a calf hurt.
“I’m blessed. I’m thankful. I’m wholesome,” Prescott acknowledged. “It be this form of things you effect no longer maintain to harp on too great, however yeah, I’m great utterly different than I’m the outdated couple of years and can fair proceed to device discontinuance a come at some stage in at to shut that manner and device discontinuance care of my physique.”
But he has yet to device discontinuance the Cowboys previous the divisional round of the playoffs on four postseason appearances. The Cowboys’ remaining Sizable Bowl come by got right here in 1995 and Prescott understands the urgency.
“At the high of the day the rigidity is what you assign on yourselves,” Prescott acknowledged. “So I mediate at the high of the day now we maintain got to comprise that our regular is wins, straight forward as that. We protect ourselves to a high regular and high expectations. No one wants to discontinuance this drought greater than the fellows within the locker room, I’m in a position to verbalize you that. For us, it be about making obvious all people is conscious of in our identity, we deem in our identity as a crew, we scurry available within the market and play complementary football at all three levels. I mediate if we plot that, proper from what now we maintain constructed all over the offseason to coaching camp to now, it be promising.”
The addition of Lance manner the Cowboys will now aid three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster within the regular season.
In March, the Cowboys signed backup Cooper Scuttle to a two-three hundred and sixty five days deal rate $5 million that included a $1.25 million signing bonus. He’s 5-1 as a starter the remaining two years when Prescott has passed over games attributable to hurt.
Will Grier became competing to be the No. 3 quarterback and is expected to device discontinuance the huge majority of the action in Saturday’s preseason finale in opposition to the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Niners in the initiating veteran the No. 3 total choose on Lance within the 2021 NFL draft after procuring and selling three first-round picks and a third-rounder to the Miami Dolphins to construct the replace.
San Francisco deliberate for Lance to play in restricted programs within the aid of then-starter Jimmy Garoppolo as a rookie however a damaged proper index finger suffered within the preseason scuttled any prolonged-time interval plans that season. Lance had one other setback with the ankle hurt remaining three hundred and sixty five days.
All instructed, Lance started four games and appeared in eight contests in his two seasons with the crew. He accomplished 56 of 102 passes for 797 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions in his time with the crew.
Lance’s eight games are the fewest performed by a high-5 choose for the franchise he debuted with within the Traditional Draft Technology (since 1967 and other than the 2023 draft class), per ESPN Stats & Recordsdata research.
