When it comes to the Dallas Cowboys, you could probably say that team owner and general manager Jerry Jones is judge, jury, and executioner. This was made abundantly clear by the organization’s recent coup on former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance, who ended up in Dallas just a couple of days after he was demoted to a QB3 role by the Niners.
If you ask Jones, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with how his team did their business on the Trey Lance front.
Dallas Cowboys Owner/GM Jerry Jones Gets Brutally Honest on Trey Lance Trade
Jones is well aware of the fact that there are more than a few folks out there who are not in favor of how Dallas’ front office operates, particularly when it comes to the 80-year-old being the sole decision-maker up top. It’s true that there are a lot of minds that collaborate within the front office when it comes to these big moves, but at the end of the day, the final call belongs to Jerry Jones.
For his part, the billionaire believes that this actually works to their advantage:
“The way we’re structured gets a lot of criticism. Unquestionably, it does,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan, via Michael David Smith of PFT. “But it lets us do a trade like we did the other day on Lance, because I didn’t have to fool around. I can make that trade in five minutes. And the reason I can is I have all the information, had it from when we drafted him, I had information right at my fingertips of what we thought of his play in the last couple of years. I knew what we thought of him. I didn’t have to visit with anybody about what type of player he is. So I was able to make the call. . . . I don’t have to talk to anybody about that.”
Jones then went on to explain how overanalyzing could cause unnecessary delays in these types of situations, which ultimately, could lead to a missed opportunity for teams who take too long in their process:
“You’re continually prepared to catch an opportunity,” Jones said. “If you had to think long or hard or have a committee meeting over something like that, that thing’s gone. You missed it. So many things are like that. So we don’t have that internal three-man, four-man check off through the organization. We don’t have to have that if it’s not called for.”
Did Dallas Cowboys Overpay for Trey Lance?
By acting so swiftly on the Trey Lance front, the Cowboys ended up having to give up a fourth-round pick in exchange for the former North Dakota State standout. Some might argue that this was too big a price to pay for a player who has failed to live up to the lofty expectations everyone had on him when he was selected as the No. 3 overall pick back in 2021. You might even say that a more prudent GM may have gotten Lance for a better price than what Dallas gave up.
At the end of the day, however, the fact of the matter is that Trey Lance is now a Cowboy. Jones and Co. did not leave much room for negotiation by giving the 49ers an offer that they pretty much couldn’t refuse. Dallas eliminated any and all competition from the get-go, thereby allowing them to get their man.
You also have to remember that Trey Lance is still just 23 years old. He has a lot of untapped potential in him, and Dallas is banking on this now that he has a fresh start with a new team. If Lance is able to emerge as a quality backup for Dak Prescott (or perhaps even more?) then the naysayers would probably be singing a different tune.
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