OXNARD, Calif. — There are plenty of NFL players who know the sting of adversity and what it takes to overcome it, and Trey Lance is in that group. A former third-overall pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 2021, the young quarterback has already found himself overcoming season-ending ankle injury the following season and, one year later, being traded to the Dallas Cowboys.
Lance enters this year's training camp locked in a battle with Cooper Rush for the seat directly behind Dak Prescott, and the preseason opener against the Los Angeles Rams will mark the first time he's taken the field in a game against an opponent since 2022.
That could make for a lot of emotions, but it sounds as if Lance is remaining grounded.
"It's just playing ball," he said after Friday's practice. "Not really thinking too much about it. I've had a lot of reps with these guys, so I'm excited to go out and run the offense well."
There is no shortage of pressure on Lance to have an outstanding preseason, particularly considering how routinely difficult it's been for quarterbacks to displace Rush as QB2 in Dallas over the years — the evaluation process on Lance this August being as intense as he's felt since pre-draft when he was transitioning to the league from North Dakota State.
But, as Lance explained, he's just playing football.
"I'm going into this game the same as I've gone into every other game my whole entire life — college, high school," he said. "I don't think that I'll put too much extra in it. I'm not gonna play any harder than I have in the past, or not harder.
"Big game for me. Big game for us so I'm excited to go out there and play well."
One of the most notable things from Lance in this year's camp, seeing as he wasn't present for last year's camp due to the timing of the trade with the 49ers (late August), is how much work he's put into perfectly mirroring the cadence of Prescott.
It's an audible doppleganger of the All-Pro quarterback's tone, inflection and timing; and it's no coincidence Lance has been so successful in achieving this — to the point media and fans are consistently confusing his snap calls for that of Prescott's before noticing it's a No. 19 on the jersey and not the No. 4.
"That's a good thing," said Lance with a smile. "When you're a backup — I'm trying to be as close as I can to him. It was just coming in and repping it, and sitting in my hotel room when I got here. Just saying out loud, saying it out loud. You can think about it all day but until you're out there doing it live [it doesn't matter].
"Iif I'm thinking about the cadence then I've got 'nother set of problems going on."
Everyone tuned into the preseason matchup against the Rams at SoFi Stadium will get an earful of that cadence from Lance as he's expected to take the bulk of the quarterback reps in each of the three preseason games to allow the Cowboys to do a full evaluation.
As he enters a contract season, it's all about turning heads this summer, and he's not focused on what will happen after he puts his best foot forward.
"I think everything works out how it's supposed to," he said. "That's the truth. I believe I'm where I'm supposed to be. I live in the present, one day at a time, taking it one meeting and one marker at a time; and controlling what I can control."
Here we gooooo….
