Dallas Cowboys CEO and co-owner Stephen Jones revealed on Monday that the organization expects Trey Lance to depart in free agency, ending a bizarre two-year tenure in Dallas.

The Cowboys traded for Lance ahead of the 2023 season when the San Francisco 49ers turned to Brock Purdy as their franchise quarterback. At the time of the deal, it made some sense for Dallas, a team without a clear-cut long-term answer under center, to take a chance on a recent top-three pick like Lance, especially when all it cost them was a fourth-round pick, but the deal aged quite poorly for the Cowboys.

Lance appeared in four regular season games in his two seasons in Dallas, starting just one – a relatively meaningless Week 18 game from this past season when the Cowboys were already eliminated from playoff contention. Sure, they didn’t give up much, but a fourth-round pick isn’t nothing, and all they got out of it was one start from Lance. It’s abundantly clear that the trade was a mistake. Anyone other than Jones would be willing to admit that.

“We took a shot a Trey and wanted to do that,” Jones told The Dallas Morning News. “We think the world of Trey. But us having Dak (Prescott) signed up for the long-term, I think he’s probably going to be looking for something different.”

Cowboys refuse to admit mistake even after parting ways with Trey Lance

The issue with this trade was not the shot that they took on Lance. Trading a fourth-round pick for someone who was just taken in the top three of a recent draft makes all the sense in the world. Perhaps with a change of scenery he would’ve broken out.

The issue with this trade was Dallas refusing to give Lance an opportunity. Again, he appeared in four games (all in 2024) and started just one. Why this happened isn’t shocking. Prescott had an MVP-caliber 2023 campaign, and then signed a record-setting extension ahead of the 2024 season opener. Lance was never going to play ahead of Prescott, and that extension sealed the fate of the trade.

What makes Jones’ statement tough to get behind is that the Cowboys actually had a chance to see what they had in Lance. Prescott suffered a season-ending injury after just eight games, and with the Cowboys at 3-5 on the time, their playoff hopes were in doubt anyway. Despite that, the Cowboys rolled with Cooper Rush for all but one game to finish the year. Rush might’ve been more NFL-ready than Lance, but again, what was the point of trading for Lance only to not play him?

The Cowboys continuously say how highly they think of Lance, and yet, they never proceeded to play him in games that meant anything after trading a pick for him. Everything about this deal turned out to be a mistake – it’s a shame Jones is unwilling to admit that.