Trey Lance has reached a crucial time in his career. With his rookie deal being up, the former No. 3 overall pick isn't guaranteed to be on an NFL roster when the regular season kicks off in September.
However, if he wanted to, he could head up north and play in the Canadian Football League. That's because the Saskatchewan Roughriders added Lance to their "negotiation list," according to Dave Naylor.
Though the name might suggest it, the news doesn't mean the two parties are negotiating. Instead, the CFL's negotiation list is a way for teams to reserve exclusive rights to negotiate with players currently not in the league. Each team is allowed to have 45 players on their negotiation list.
For instance, players like Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes were once in CFL team's negotiation lists. But Lance is in a different spot than they were. With a return to the Cowboys looking increasingly unlikely as the front office is admittedly targeting a backup quarterback in the NFL Draft. Meanwhile, Lance has seemingly not received plenty of interest in free agency. If he has, it's been kept quiet.
Simply put, Lance is at a point where the idea to go and play in Canada not only makes sense, but it could save his career.
Playing in the CFL could secure Trey Lance's long-term future in the NFL
Lance has the arm talent, he has the top-tier athleticism to be a double-threat quarterback, and he's only 24 years old, soon to be 25. But everyone agrees the one thing he is missing is reps. Going back to his college days, Lance simply hasn't thrown that many passes in live action.
His odd career path has gotten him to a point where there's not a lot he can do about getting reps: Teams are likely turned off by the fact that he has little game experience yet unwilling to give him a chance at getting those reps because success is always urgent in the NFL.
But what if Lance gets reps in another league? In all likelihood, he's not going to land a big deal in the NFL this offseason. If he lands somewhere, it will likely be for a salary near the veteran minimum.
We see players "bet on themselves" with one-year deals all the time. This would be the ultimate way to bet on himself. Go get the thing you need the most - reps - and show out against "lesser" competition. If that's all that's truly missing from his game to be an NFL-caliber quarterback, he could fix it and head back to Sunday football when he's 26 years old.
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