Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones said he didn’t give Dak Prescott a heads up.
Jones said he didn’t give head coach Mike McCarthy advance notice, either, before pulling the trigger on a trade for quarterback Trey Lance.
"We didn't tell anybody until we did. Period," Jones said. "My point is, we just wanted to get it done."
The comments raised almost as many eyebrows as the Cowboys' swap of a fourth-round pick for the No. 3 overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft. That's the deal the Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers agreed to on Friday evening.
Even as Jones positioned acquiring Lance as a long-term development play, fans and analysts wondered: Could Lance succeed or one day back up Prescott? How close would a direct competition even be? The questions – in the short term, at least – overlook the reality that journeyman Sam Darnold beat out Lance for the San Francisco 49ers’ second-string job. In that competition, Lance had deeper history with the playbook.
Now, he arrives at a new system without the chance of preseason reps. Cooper Rush is firmly entrenched as the Cowboys’ backup quarterback after Rush won four of five starts last season, and one of one the year prior. So consider the rumblings surrounding any eventual quarterback controversy to be external noise rather than internal reality.
Are people reading too much into who Jones did and didn’t tell?
“Yeah, I think they read a little too much into it,” Prescott told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday. “As I've said before and I made it known, I understand that's the front office and they have a job to do, and I believe in everything that they're doing. Whether it's additions or trades to this team, they're doing it for the betterment of the whole team.
“So, I'm just excited to, as we have, welcome Trey and just continue to make our room better, make our offense better and our team better. I know he's gonna do everything he can to do that.”
Prescott will, too.
Entering his eighth season as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback, no QB1 in the league is longer-tenured than Prescott. He started 97 regular-season games, winning 61, while completing 66.6% of his passes for 24,943 yards, 166 touchdowns and 65 interceptions. He’s rushed 352 times for another 1,642 yards and 26 touchdowns.
Prescott's productions and his challenges – including his league-high 15 interceptions last season – inform how he'll approach this season. The Cowboys have won 12 games each of the last two years but their NFC Championship game drought dates back to 1996.
“I definitely feel like I’m at my best mentally, physically,” Prescott said. “Quarterbacks, we get better with the experiences of seeing defenses, being in different situations, really just getting the feel of the game more and more and understanding what’s a disguise, what's not.
“And as much as that, the change of the play caller and the (offensive coordinator) has been something that's been enlightening.”
For the first time since joining the NFL in 2016, Prescott will compete with a new offensive system. McCarthy will call Dallas plays for the first time this year, integrating the West Coast principles that guided the Green Bay Packers' success in McCarthy's 13 seasons as head coach. Expect the Cowboys to emphasize quarterback footwork and receiver route depth more intentionally this season than in Prescott's career to date.
“Being detailed as probably ever before and getting everybody (on) the same page has been fun,” Prescott said. “So yeah, I'm excited. It feels like I'm a rookie again, honestly.”
