The Dallas Cowboys have not had good luck with trades involving day three draft picks. While the Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks deals can be regarded as wins, trading away Amari Cooper for a fifth-round pick and a sixth-round pick swap was a failure of epic proportions.
We have also seen Dallas trade away fourth-round picks for Trey Lance and Jonathan Mingo. While the jury is still out on Mingo being he was acquired at last year’s trade deadline, the Lance experiment lasted just two seasons and never made it off the ground.
Buried behind Dak Prescott and Cooper on the depth chart, Lance appeared in just four games and made one regular-season start for the Cowboys in a meaningless Week 18 game against the Commanders in January.
Lance didn’t show nearly enough to warrant being re-signed by Dallas. He recently inked a one-year pact with Jim Harbaugh and the LA Chargers to presumably compete with Taylor Heinicke for the backup job behind Justin Herbert.
That actually might not be the case.
Former Cowboys QB Trey Lance’s contract details with Chargers revealed
It was initially reported that Lance’s deal is worth up to $6.2 million. According to Alex Insdorf of Bolt Beat, the base value of Lance’s contract is $2.045 million. Incentives push the max value of the deal to the aforementioned $6.2 million, but $2.045 million is the number to know here.
While Lance and Heinicke have similar contracts, Heinicke’s $2.5 million base salary gives him a modest edge over the former No. 3 overall pick. That Heinicke will make more than Lance suggests he’ll start offseason workouts as the Chargers’ QB2.
That doesn’t mean Lance won’t put heat on Heinicke in OTAs and training camp. It also doesn’t rule out Lance potentially leapfrogging the longtime backup.
At the same time, Heinicke has started 29 games in his career and helped Washington win the NFC East in 2021 in the only season he started more than 10 games. Granted, the division was a train wreck that year and Heinicke hasn’t been able to find a consistent starting role since, but that experience will play in his favor this summer.
Lance, meanwhile, has attempted just 143 passes in his career. He’s completed less than 57% of his passes while averaging 88.8 passing yards per game with five touchdowns to four interceptions. His career 80.3 passer rating would have ranked 35th of 37 QBs last season.
Hopefully Lance is able to push Heinicke and get his career back on track. Based on the information at our disposal, though, it wouldn’t surprise at all if he ends up in the exact same role he had with the Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys signaled the end of the Trey Lance era when they traded for Patriots quarterback Joe Milton, who was set to be New England’s QB3 this season after the team signed journeyman Josh Dobbs to back up promising youngster Drake Maye.
Unlike recent trades for Jonathan Mingo, Kenneth Murray and Kaiir Elam, the Cowboys were applauded for taking a flier on Milton. The cost essentially amounts to a Day 3 pick swap.
While Milton has a long way to go in his development, his athleticism and arm talent are fun traits for the new coaching staff to sink their teeth into. He can throw the ball 70 yards through the air with ease and one of his passes at last year’s Combine was clocked at 62 miles per hour.
Milton has a greater chance of panning out in Dallas compared to Lance, though it will be interesting to see what Lance does in sunny California after he inked a one-year pact with the LA Chargers worth up to $6.2 million.
It’s a great deal for Lance all things considered, and it could potentially net the Cowboys a 2026 compensatory pick, per Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Cowboys could acquire a compensatory pick thanks to Trey Lance
Harris tweeted that Lance “should” net Dallas a comp pick. A sixth-rounder is the most likely outcome, but it’s impossible to say at this point in the NFL calendar. For what it’s worth, Harris believes the Cowboys will get an additional fifth-rounder after losing Jourdan Lewis.
A sixth-round pick is nothing to write home about, but it’s better than nothing. “Nothing” is essentially what Lance contributed over his two years in North Texas.
While he started every preseason game in 2024, he appeared in just four regular-season games and his only start came in Week 18 last season. In total, Lance completed 25 of 41 passes (61.0%) for 266 yards and zero touchdowns to one interception in his four regular-season appearances.
It’s not like Lance stood out in preseason, either. His 65.0 PFF passing grade ranked 16th out of 25 QBs who dropped back to pass at least 50 times. He ranked 11th in completion rate and tied for the most interceptions with five.
The Cowboys getting as high as a sixth-round pick for Lance would be a huge win. That could morph into a fifth depending on if Lance gets any playing time next season, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.
Milton, meanwhile, brings much more upside to Dallas.
The former Tennessee star doesn’t have the expectations of being the No. 3 overall pick (he was drafted in the sixth round last year) and his confidence is seemingly in a much better place than Lance, who lost his starting job with the 49ers to a former Mr. Irrelevant in Brock Purdy.