The Dallas Cowboys acquired Trey Lance from the 49ers on Friday in a stunning trade move, sending a 2024 fourth-round draft pick to San Francisco in exchange for the young quarterback.
While Lance's place on the Cowboys' depth chart is uncertain, Dallas now has a signal-caller they viewed favorably entering the 2021 NFL Draft -- at a fraction of what they reportedly thought he was worth back then.
The Cowboys had a second-round grade on Lance entering the 2021 draft, ESPN's Todd Archer reported Friday, citing multiple sources.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
San Francisco, of course, traded away major draft capital in 2021 to move up to No. 3 overall, ultimately selecting Lance in the first round. And while Dallas appears to have had Lance graded lower, there's still plenty the team liked about the North Dakota State product.
"His athletic ability, his arm strength," Jones told reporters Friday about how Lance stood out in the draft process. "And frankly, we knew he hadn't played a lot of football relative to -- let's say -- what Dak had played in college. But he's very athletic and he can, in my mind, really do both -- be a threat at running and throwing."
That's essentially what the 49ers liked about Lance, too, though the team certainly had a higher opinion of the dual-threat quarterback after making him a top-three pick. Lance's tenure in the Bay didn't work out as coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch had hoped, but it's clear the Cowboys are happy to have his talents on board.
