FRISCO, Texas — About three hours before each game that the Cowboys have played this season, if you look on the field to see the early happenings, you'll see a few things.
You'll see a couple of players doing light stretching and an assistant coach or two running around the field with music in their ears. It's mostly a relaxed time without fans in the stadium and the intercoms silent. That is, until Trey Lance walks out onto the field.
Lance and quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien have integrated an instructed pregame workout that has seen Lance go back to the fundamentals of his game with Tolzien to continue to grow as a young quarterback. The workouts have allowed Lance to pick up unique instruction in what Mike McCarthy has referred to as "QB School" for the former first-round pick.
"Really pleased with Trey so far," QBs coach Scott Tolzien said. "His approach is what stands out more than anything. This guy is willing to improve, he puts in the time in the classroom and on the field. He wants to get better and I'm appreciative of that."
Answering questions correctly in position meetings, always being available during practice and fulfilling his scout team duties have all led towards Lance picking up the weekly instruction that has proven to be invaluable at this point.
"You're really just trying to fight for reps anyway you can get them," Tolzien said. "It's big. You're fighting for reps, and that's one of our opportunities. Fortunately with this new rule to dress three [QBs], you get the opportunity to work these guys out and it allows us to work out the kinks from throughout the week."
The allowance to focus purely on the fundamentals has allowed Lance to improve since arriving in Dallas in late August, as Tolzien has put focus into the footwork and release elements of his throwing fundamentals.
"Trey is young, he's 23 years old," he said. "That's the beauty of it and I appreciate that Coach McCarthy is big on the fundamentals. It is the NFL, but yet there's still a focus on the fundamentals. Sometimes that does get lost, but with Coach he's always fighting for us getting better fundamentally."
That help has extended to everyone in the quarterback room from Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush.
"Everyone has worked well together from Dak to Cooper to Trey," Tolzien said. "They're all in it to help each other out."
