Trey Lance Trade: Cowboys 'Career-Defining' Move for Coach Mike McCarthy?

The temptation to test Trey Lance will be there for the Dallas Cowboys over the next two years. Whether he accepts could create the path that defines the rest of coach Mike McCarthy's career.

"Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should."

The gut-punching finale of Dr. Ian Malcolm's monologue from the original "Jurassic Park" obviously had nothing to do with the Dallas Cowboys' trade for Trey Lance. The 1993 film, after all, even spawned a sequel in the seven years before Lance was even born. 

There are Friday news dumps and then there's what the Cowboys did, dealing for the San Francisco 49ers' embattled third overall pick of the 2021 draft at the onset of the NFL's final weekend of preseason action. The muted nature of the transaction is an ironic contrast to the impact it could have on the franchise's path forward.

From the most optimistic lens, the trade could be best viewed as prudent: modern NFL teams should strive to carry both the present and future quarterbacks on their roster, even if that's not the same man. But, in even more ironic contrast, patience will ostensibly be required to prove the plethora of instant reactions right or wrong.

Dallas management can insist all it wants that Friday's wasn't "about" incumbent starter Dak Prescott, whose hold upon the franchise quarterback spot is at its most tenuous since he arrived in 2016. That's obviously the right thing to say, but make no mistake: every Prescott incompletion ... or, worse yet, turnover ... just became headline news in Dallas until Lance proves himself unworthy of the top passing duties. 

Patience is a virtue but it might as well be gibberish in the eyes of the professional football fan. Things got crazy enough when an adequate Cooper Rush merely won games last season. The volume around Prescott will reach deafening levels with a legitimate prospect like Lance, packed with upside and potential despite his star-crossed injury history, wearing a Cowboys-branded baseball cap. 

That's where Mike McCarthy comes in ... and maybe out.

Critics of McCarthy jab him for holding only one Super Bowl ring after lucking into the Brett Favre-Aaron Rodgers changing of the guard in Green Bay. But, even if the feud with Rodgers reached soap opera/reality show levels, McCarthy handled the transition itself well, fully committing to Rodgers even after Favre changed his mind in retirement and putting the latter on a nomadic path between New York and Green Bay.

How McCarthy - who as a well-heeled developer of QB's was surely in favor of this trade - balances the temptation of Lance while standing as the nurturing voice that Prescott needs could come to define his Dallas career ... or at least its potential continuation.

If Prescott struggles, will McCarthy be willing to make a similar switch? Or will he toe the company line and rededicate himself to Prescott, whose fate may not only be intertwined but is also more or less immoveable until 2025? 

Should McCarthy fully dedicate himself to the Prescott grind, it could lead to his end: if Prescott once again fails to lead a Dallas breakthrough to the NFC Championship Game side (whether it's fair to fully pin that on him is another conversation entirely), McCarthy will be asked why he didn't give Lance the chance he was denied in the Bay Area. If McCarthy lifts the supposed "project" label off Lance too early, Prescott and Co. are placed in an awkward spot.

Patience pays off for those who still carry it in the NFL ... remember Patrick Mahomes' rookie "season" in Kansas City? ... but two years of it is a tall ask.

Of course, Prescott could recover from his turnover-infested season and help the Cowboys succeed in a relatively-open NFC. If not, Lance is waiting in the wings and could get the long-term opportunity snatched out of his hands by medical destiny. Supervising it all is McCarthy, the newly-reminted playcaller who in a way is no longer just part of an offensive tandem ... but also entangled in an offensive triangle.

Management, apparently obsessed with the idea that there is a big payoff here, has pushed a lot onto McCarthy's plate with the Lance trade. It's primarily still about the Super Bowl and it's still about Dak Prescott. But it's also now about another layer of opportunity ... and pressure, demands and foggy horizons.

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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