The summer of Trey? How the Cowboys’ Lance is preparing to make his case

COLLEYVILLE, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys‘ offseason program ended only a few days earlier, but at mid-afternoon on a Saturday in early June, Trey Lance is working at Colleyville Heritage High School’s indoor athletic facility.

For more than 90 minutes, Lance throws all sorts of passes under the watchful eye of his private quarterback coach, Jeff Christensen. Among the five receivers is former Cowboys wideout Terrance Williams, a 2013 third-round pick who looks as fast today as he did as a rookie. The ceiling fans inside the facility move the air but don’t bring down the temperature all that much.

It does, however, beat working outside where the temperature is in the high-90s.

“I’ve got no reason not to [be here],” Lance said. “I think of it that way. I guess I’m not in any position to have any slipups or anything like that, so for me, it’s a no-brainer. I feel healthy. I feel great. And every time I come out here, I get better. So it’s one of those things where I would feel guilty if I was out there doing something else.”

The only break Lance will take before training camp is a quick return to Minnesota for a friend’s wedding. There’s too much to do and too much at stake before the Cowboys report to Oxnard, California, on July 23.

Lance, the 2021 No. 3 overall pick by the San Francisco 49ers, is entering a critical time in his career. He started two games as a rookie and two more in 2022 as the 49ers’ top quarterback before an ankle injury ended his season, ultimately leading to Brock Purdy‘s rise from Mr. Irrelevant to Super Bowl quarterback.

With Purdy locked in as their franchise QB, the 49ers traded Lance to the Cowboys last August for a fourth-round pick. Joining Dallas in the preseason, Lance was forced to pick up the offense on the fly, knowing the chances of getting on the field in 2023 were slim. Even this season, the final year of his rookie contract, the only guarantee is the $5.3 million in base salary and bonus — not a chance to actually play as a backup to Dak Prescott.

He will have to earn that and prove he has a future as an NFL quarterback in Dallas or elsewhere as an unrestricted free agent next offseason.

And that’s why Lance is at an indoor high school facility in June for nearly 90 minutes.

“I’ve got hard workers,” Christensen said. “I’ve got a lot of kids I’ve had for a long time. He’s top three I’ve ever met in my life, for sure.”

Christensen is Patrick Mahomes‘ private quarterback coach too. He also works with the Raiders’ Aidan O’Connell and Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield, among others in the NFL. Louisville’s Brady Allen is with Lance for this workout, and Christensen also has tutored Texas’ Quinn Ewers. Before Lance’s workout this day, Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola was with Christensen.

Lance and Christensen partnered up 15 months ago, in part because Lance’s North Dakota State teammate, Zeb Norland, learned under Christensen. A phone call and shared videos turned into a trip to the Dallas area for a workout. Not long after, Lance was coincidentally traded to the Cowboys.

“Jeff was talking s—, like, ‘You’re going to be wearing a star on your helmet,’ and obviously he was totally kidding,” Lance said. “None of us had any idea, but it obviously ended up working out that way.”

When Lance started working with Christensen, he was just getting cleared from the ankle injury. He did not need to be rebuilt, just retooled.

“He had some wrong information,” Christensen said. “We had to experiment a lot on things I’ve never done before to get him to feel certain things.”

The major change was to his footwork. Christensen wanted Lance to be more “violent” with his lower body. And a slight change in his grip took away pain he had felt in his arm. No longer was he required to ice his arm after long sessions. That Christensen has a background with Mahomes, the best quarterback in the NFL, made everything an easy sell for Lance.

“I didn’t even know it could be like how it is now,” Lance said. “Just getting my front foot down, not striding. It’s all about my feet and my feet hitting the ground the right way. Your arm is kind of a reaction to what your lower half does.”

As Lance throws quick outs or crossing routes, Christensen puts a red broom handle at his feet to make sure he doesn’t over-stride. At different times he tells him to be tall to make sure his posture is correct. And then he has him close his eyes as he is making throws.

“It’s a game of feel,” Christensen said. “I want to raise their sense of feel in their fingertips.”

Most of the passes fall perfectly into the receivers’ hands. When they don’t, Lance can almost autocorrect what went wrong.

“During these workouts, I try not to get pissed off or frustrated by [thinking about] completions. I know I’m working on something. So, for me, whatever my emphasis is that day, that takes control over the completions,” Lance said. “You slow down your arm a lot when you watch the ball, so the first thing when you close your eyes is you have to trust you’re going to let it go, that you’re going to be violent with your backside, violent with the wrist and fingers. Watching the ball, sometimes you decelerate.”

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy noted Lance’s mechanical changes during the offseason. Christensen, who was a fifth-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1983 and played one year at quarterback for Marty Schottenheimer with the Cleveland Browns, had numerous discussions with McCarthy, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien.

He knows what they want for Lance.

“I have to deliver that and be a voice for them,” Christensen said. “If there’s a certain way you drop with your feet, or reading things inside out or outside in, or high-to-low or low-to-high, or how you move in the pocket. I can always tweak up what I do to match what they need because they’re the coach.”

In a Cowboys’ season that will be mostly about Prescott’s future, if he does not sign a contract extension, or even the futures of All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons and an entire coaching staff that is in the final year of their respective contracts, Lance’s development is an interesting subtext.

He is competing for the No. 2 job with Cooper Rush, who has a 6-1 record as a starter, while trying to prove to the Cowboys and other teams that he can be what the Niners thought he was when they took him third overall. In May, he turned 24. He is younger than two first-round quarterbacks from this spring, Atlanta’s Michael Penix Jr. and Denver’s Bo Nix.

He started just 19 games at North Dakota State and four in the NFL, and one of those games was in weather that looked like a monsoon in Chicago against the Bears. In eight games, he has completed 56 of 102 passes for 797 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions.

“He needs reps, and you’re trying to give him as many reps as you can throughout this offseason program,” McCarthy said earlier in the spring. “He will take a large part of the preseason, that’s the design. Him and I talk about preseason quite often. That’s what we’re building towards.”

Prescott has not taken a preseason snap since 2019, so Lance will have plenty of chances to show what he can do. He can’t wait for the Aug. 11 preseason opener against the Los Angeles Rams. Or any of the three preseason games, really.

That will be his time to deliver on the work he has put in and show what he can ultimately be.

“I feel like I’m in a good spot,” Lance said, “so I’m excited to get out there, get some reps and let it rip.”

Maybe even with his eyes closed.