SANTA CLARA — As the news of Trey Lance’s trade to the Dallas Cowboys broke on Friday afternoon, the 49ers were trickling into the locker room to get ready for their preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers.
They checked their phones and saw Adam Schefter’s tweet like the rest of us, while a few players got to say their goodbyes to Lance in the practice facility parking lot next to Levi’s Stadium. According to 49ers tight end George Kittle, the news was met with a mix of surprise and relief for Lance.
“We’re all happy for Trey,” Kittle said. “Fresh start, going to Dallas, he’ll enjoy it. They’ll take good care of him down there, he’ll learn from a veteran quarterback. It’ll be good for him.”
Dak Prescott, 30, is signed for the next two seasons as part of his four-year, $160 million contract signed in 2021. Lance, 23, has two years left on his rookie deal after being the No. 3 overall pick in 2021 and Dallas will have the right to extend his fifth-year option for 2025. Perhaps Lance is being groomed to be Prescott’s successor, if he can prove to be a better option than 29-year-old backup Cooper Rush.
For as much buzz as Lance has created over the past two-plus seasons in San Francisco, the noise will follow him to Dallas, especially with two weeks of air time before the season opener.
“That’s kinda their brand,” 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk said of the Cowboys. “They kinda do splashy moves like that.”
The Cowboys and Niners have been rivals for decades and have faced each other in the past two playoffs, with San Francisco ending Dallas’ season in back-to-back years. It’s gonna be weird to see Lance with a blue star on his helmet this season, but Kittle said he’s not putting any extra weight on Trey going to Dallas.
“We could go beat him up right now,” Kittle joked. “But, no, I wouldn’t do that. I like him too much.”
In reality, love was the prevailing theme among Lance’s former 49ers teammates on Friday night. Everyone had nothing but good things to say about the 23-year-old Lance, who ran out of time to develop while Brock Purdy assumed the franchise quarterback role last season as a rookie.
Purdy was able to catch up with Lance before he left the team facility before Friday’s game.
“Obviously I love Trey, everything that he's done for this organization and obviously for myself,” Purdy said. “He's been a real one and helped me come into the league and welcome me with open arms and showed me the ropes to this whole thing. So can't tell you how grateful I am for him and to have him in my life and to be here with him. So forever grateful for Trey.”
Last season, Purdy was part of a quarterback room that included Jimmy Garoppolo and Lance. Though his NFL career is just 28 months long, dating back to the 2021 Draft, Lance has been through quite a bit beyond his eight games (four starts).
Still, Trey has been nothing but a true professional while dealing with two awkward seasons with Jimmy G and then this training camp with Sam Darnold, who eventually surpassed him on the depth chart to be QB2.
“He handled it like an adult,” Kittle said. “I think we’ve seen examples in other places where guys don’t handle adversity and they blame everybody else, they point fingers and stuff like that. We haven’t really had that issue in this entire organization. I think that speaks to the volume of character we have on this team.
“Trey was in the (QB) room when Jimmy G got every single day, all the time. Jimmy handled it really well, so he had to learn a bit from him and he handled it great on his own as well.”
It might be somewhat of a shock to some, but 49ers captain linebacker Fred Warner read the tea leaves and wasn’t surprised to see Lance get moved so quickly, as Darnold learned he won the job on Wednesday.
“I know they had been talking about wanting to get him in a situation to start fresh,” Warner said. “I’m happy for him, but obviously I’m sad to see him leave because he’s a great teammate, great guy. The locker room loved him, but I’m happy for him to get a fresh start somewhere.”
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