Another loss at home Monday night sent an already spiraling Dallas Cowboys season into further disarray.
But with the playoffs all but mathematically out of reach, owner and general manager Jerry Jones isn’t yet ready to find out what the Cowboys have in backup quarterback Trey Lance.
Jones was asked about the Cowboys’ quarterback situation in his weekly radio appearance Tuesday morning. He’s not ready to move on from Cooper Rush, who’s started the last two weeks in place of injured starter Dak Prescott.
Here’s what Jones said when asked if it’s time to switch to Lance at quarterback.
“I don’t know that,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan. “I thought Rush actually had improvement last night from the game before. He didn’t have far to go to get improvement, but I did think he had improvement.
“And frankly, there were times in that ballgame that I thought it was really coming to it. And we know that we’ve got limited time to work with these quarterbacks at this particular time, and I would look for us to stay with the experience.”
Rush improved, but Cowboys didn’t
Rush did show marked improvement in Monday’s loss to the Houston Texans from his first start of the season a week prior. Against the Texans, Rush completed 32 of 55 passes (58.2%) for 354 yards (6.4 yards per attempt) with one touchdown and one interception. The Cowboys generated 388 yards of total offense.
In Week 10 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Rush completed 13 of 23 passes (56.5%) for 45 yards (2 yards per attempt) with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Cowboys generated 146 yards of total offense in that game, Rush’s first start of the season.
But the end results of each game were nearly identical. The Cowboys lost 34-6 to the Eagles. They lost 34-10 on Monday against the Texans. Both losses took place in Dallas, where the Cowboys are now 0-5 for the season.
The Cowboys are now 3-7 overall with no reasonable chance of rallying to make the playoffs. They can’t run and they can’t stop the run, and that’s not magically going to change for the final seven games of the season. So why not see what they have in Lance?
Will Trey Lance ever start for the Cowboys?
A seventh-year veteran, Rush is a known commodity. He’s a career backup. Lance, meanwhile, was the No. 3 pick in the draft in 2021. Circumstances including injuries limited him to just eight starts with the 49ers team that drafted him.
But the 49ers saw enough behind the scenes to cut their significant losses and trade Lance to the Cowboys in 2023. Reported practice struggles that plagued Lance in San Francisco have carried over with the Cowboys. He couldn’t supplant Rush as QB2 in training camp.
So did the Cowboys misevaluate Lance when they sent the 49ers a fourth-round pick to acquire him?
“No, we knew exactly where Trey Lance was when he left San Francisco,” Jones said Monday. “He was what fourth, fifth pick in the draft? We knew he hadn’t played much football.
“He has improved dramatically. You’ve got to get out there and you’ve got to play. We have thought it was just too important for us to have him at rookie quarterback in these last two ballgames, because we need to win to that degree and give ourselves every chance we can.”
So if Lance has improved dramatically, why not give some a shot at starter? There’s really nothing left to lose this season. Or is Jones just not ready to accept the reality that a season that started with Super Bowl hopes is lost?
“We hadn’t gotten to the point that we were basically looking to evaluate Trey Lance more at all,” Jones continued. “And so that’s where we are.”
If the Cowboys aren’t yet ready to give Lance a look, will they ever be? Would being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs prompt a change? For Jones, that remains a question for down the road.
“We have really worked with Trey,” Jones said. “We have evaluated Trey. We’ll see what the future brings here over the next few weeks, but I’m satisfied where we are.”