ARLINGTON, Texas — Jerry Jones took a moment before Saturday night's preseason finale against the Las Vegas Raiders to speak on the addition of Trey Lance on Friday night, as he – along with the front office – starts to plan for the future after Dak Prescott.
The move stems around a long desire for Jones and the front office to bring in a young, developing quarterback to learn under Dak Prescott in order to create a smooth transition when his playing days are over. While this plan has been in effect for at least three years, the opportunity to strike came on Friday night with Lance.
"The facts are that the decision to bring in as high a quality of a talent as we could that's evolving – a young talent that is improving — that's something that we've been trying to do, but the opportunity seems to be there only so often," Jones said. "We've been trying to do what we did today with this trade in almost every draft since we've been drafting."
That plan centered around none other than the quarterback of the Cowboys' chief division rival, Jalen Hurts, in the 2020 draft, but the Eagles grabbed the athletic quarterback out of Oklahoma before Jones and the Cowboys had the chance.
"Two years ago we were looking at the Philadelphia quarterback," he said. "Had he fallen to us, we would've drafted him. It is our plan when we can, but it very seldom happens, to have someone with a high enough quality to be in a place with our draft pick. We're excited about [Lance]."
Prescott, 30, is entering his eighth season with the Cowboys and is someone that Jones sees as someone who can be a mentor for Lance for the future with what he does on and off the field. While noise from outside suggested this would impact Prescott's impending contract extension negotiations, Jones was quick to thwart that notion.
"It didn't cross my mind, period, about an impact regarding Dak," he said. "I know Dak wants anything that we can do to improve this team. It would be ideal with Dak to have a young prospective developing quarterback that could just be in the room, be on the team with him. [Lance] can take from one of the finest quarterback rooms that there is because Dak Prescott is in it. Dak Prescott's finest quality for me is how he takes what he learns in the classroom to the practice field."
While Jones did acknowledge potential packages that could exist in 2023 that would have Lance on the field, he's insistent on this being a plan for the future, not now.
"Candidly, I don't want to plan on, count on or wish for help from him this year," he said.
