It felt like Trey Lance’s future as a Dallas Cowboy hung in the balance going into the Saturday night matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. That may sound hyperbolic — and it may feel like an awful lot of weight to place on a single preseason game, but circumstances created that vibe.
Lance’s uneven performances on the practice fields in Oxnard, Calif., provided more questions than answers. His performance at SoFi Stadium in the preseason opener last week gave voice to more pessimism than optimism. If Lance put forth a dud in Vegas, it may have been a hole too deep to dig out of with only a couple of padded practices and one home preseason game ahead. Jerry Jones falling victim to sunk-cost fallacy could have saved Lance but the promise of his potential ceiling likely wouldn’t have.
Fortunately for Lance, his potential flashed enough against the Las Vegas Raiders in the Cowboys’ 27-12 victory to keep things interesting.
“Two 14-play drives, that’s incredible for preseason football,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said of Lance’s performance. “It just shows you his understanding and confidence, and he just needs to continue to play. He just needs reps. He needs to play in live games, particularly in the drop-back phase because he’s doing a very good job managing everything else. I thought he clearly took a step today.”
Trey for 6️⃣
📺: #DALvsLV on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/WXsiTj4IxA— NFL (@NFL) August 18, 2024
One of the knocks on Lance has been his struggles working through his reads after the snap. At times, it’s felt like Lance goes through his progressions too quickly, causing him to miss primary reads. Other times, it’s felt like he takes too long with his reads, resulting in defenders getting enough time to recover against open receivers. Lance’s running ability has bailed him out in some of those situations, making the bottom-line result of the play not look as bad as it could, but it’s hard to completely mask it.
Against the Raiders, Lance performed better in that area, especially as the game wore progressed. His decisions to run — Lance led the Cowboys with seven rushing attempts for 34 yards — felt more calculated than simply being used as a crutch. He spread the ball around, targeting 14 players and completing at least one pass to eight of them. His touchdown to rookie Ryan Flournoy was a nice touch pass on a smooth route by Flournoy — the type of pass Lance failed to complete last week to Jalen Cropper.
GO DEEPER
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy on performance vs. Raiders: ‘This was a good night for us’
“I just tried to take everything one step at a time,” Lance said. “I definitely felt more comfortable. I think that was a big part of it. Just going to try to build on it next week.”
Lance’s first touchdown drive of the game — and the preseason — began midway through the second quarter. On five of the first seven plays, the Cowboys got productive runs from Royce Freeman and Deuce Vaughn. That seemed to settle Lance and make him more comfortable. Four of the last seven plays of that drive featured Lance — three passes and one scramble to convert a third-and-1. It ended with the 1-yard touchdown pass to Flournoy.
Trey Lance throws a touchdown to put Dallas ahead 🙌
📺: #DALvsLV on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/6VTfH7jAs2— NFL (@NFL) August 18, 2024
Another knock on Lance has been his accuracy. Last week against the Los Angeles Rams, he routinely overthrew his receivers. To say Lance’s accuracy issues were eliminated against the Raiders would be a stretch. He had some misses, including an inside throw on third-and-5 to Cropper on his second drive. Cropper had a chance at the catch but the throw was behind and led to a punt.
But Lance was better in delivering balls receivers could catch and still do damage afterward. Lance completed 15 of 23 passes for 151 yards. More than half of that yardage came after the catch, with receivers picking up 78 yards after the catch, according to TruMedia. That’s a credit to Lance’s ability to deliver passes that allowed the receivers to showcase their ability with the ball in their hands. Lance still needs to improve his downfield passing, but overall, his passing game took a step in the right direction.
Lance is under an unusual spotlight for a third-string quarterback. Many of those reasons are out of his control. Lance didn’t ask to carry the baggage of all the San Francisco 49ers gave up to select him third overall in the 2021 draft, but he does. The Cowboys gave up a fourth-round pick to acquire him, a decent price for a young quarterback with unrealized potential that looked a bit pricier because of subsequent quarterback trades around the league.
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.
Sign Up
Lance can’t control those perceptions. He also can’t control that, because of Dak Prescott’s contract situation, some only grade his performances based on his potential to be a QB1. His natural next step — should he progress — is to be active on game day as QB2.
Preseason games have greatly subjective significance. For many players, they’re tiny steps that stand in the way of the real tests, when the regular season begins. For others, these games are personal Super Bowls.
Lance didn’t dazzle against the Raiders, but he didn’t need to. He just needed to do enough to buy time until his next Super Bowl, which is Saturday at AT&T Stadium in the preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers. He was able to do that.
(Photo: Chris Unger / Getty Images)
