The 2025 fourth-round pick the Dallas Cowboys traded the San Francisco 49ers for third-string quarterback Trey Lance before the 2023 season is getting more valuable by the week.
The 3-7 Cowboys are slated to pick 9th in each round of the draft and their draft slot is expected to improve with the team in free-fall mode. Dallas has lost five straight and have the sixth-hardest schedule the rest of the way.
Cowboys backup quarterback Cooper Rush has struggled in his two starts in place of Dak Prescott, prompting calls from the media and fans to start Lance for the rest of the season. The team's front office and coach Mike McCarthy have been reluctant to pull the plug and named Rush the starter for Sunday's game against the Washington Commanders.
With the losses mounting and Lance set to become a free agent at the end of the season, it would make sense for the Cowboys to see what they have in Lance at some point considering they traded a mid-round pick for the player.
Despite Lance not getting significant action to this point, Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said Friday on the GBag Nation that he didn't regret trading away a mid-round pick for a quarterback who hasn't played meaningful snaps in the 1.5 seasons he's been here.
"We'd do that again. He was a top-tier pick," Jones said on the GBag Nation on 105.3 The Fan. "As you know, Dak [Prescott] was coming up for contract. We wanted to take a look at a good, young talent. And didn't feel like we could get anything from a quality standpoint like we could get with Trey. As it turns out, we ended up signing Dak long-term. Obviously, that puts a little less need in having to rush to do something with Trey. It makes it hard because Trey, I'm sure, is wanting to see what's out there now that we have committed to Dak long-term. I don't regret that at all.
"That was a situation where you don't know for sure. Dak, obviously, controlled his destiny. If he wanted do, he could have signed somewhere else. And we wanted options. We just didn't feel like we could get the quality of Trey in the fourth round to have in the building to compete for that job."
Another hot topic of discussion centering around the Cowboys is Mike McCarthy's future as the team's head coach and offensive play-caller. Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones has said many times that he will not make a mid-season coaching change. And as for McCarthy calling the plays, Stephen Jones said Friday that the team isn't considering stripping him of those duties.