Buffalo Bills attempted to trade for QB Trey Lance

Bills were bested by the Cowboys, who traded a fourth-round pick for Lance

Late on Friday evening, news broke that the San Francisco 49ers had agreed to trade embattled quarterback Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys. But with all things NFL, the Cowboys weren’t the only team to make an offer. As Cam Inman reported, the Buffalo Bills attempted to work out a trade for Lance, but their offer was less than what Dallas proposed to the Niners.

So there we have it: The Bills made an attempt to bring in outside competition at quarterback. Whether this news motivates Kyle Allen and Matt Barkley or complicates things in the locker rooms, remains unknown.

It’s at least very interesting that One Bills Drive made an offer to land Lance. There’s no telling what that offer was, just that it ended up being less than the fourth-round pick Jerry Jones and the Cowboys were willing to exchange. Clearly, the team seeks improvement behind Josh Allen.

It’s uncertain how Lance would even fit into the equation with the Bills. He’s clearly in need of a career rebuild, but the same was said of Mitch Trubisky who never had a chance to play much in Buffalo and hasn’t experienced a career Renaissance since leaving the Bills. It’s been said that Buffalo’s offensive playbook is notoriously difficult to learn, which might have proven a tall task for a quarterback who’s only ever played in eight NFL games, making four starts.

The 49ers drafted Lance third overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, moving up by trading with the Miami Dolphins and giving up their 2021, 2022 and 2023 first-round picks, and their third-round pick in 2022. But since that day, things haven’t gone as planned. From learning behind Jimmy Garoppolo and replacing him due to injury, to earning the starting job in 2022 only to be lost for the season due to injury in Week 2. Lance has experienced a precipitous drop, to say the least. He never reclaimed the starting job, which now belongs to “Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy. The final nail in his Niners coffin? Lance learned earlier this week that he was beaten out for QB2 by Sam Darnold.

Lance is only 23 years old, and he’s one of the leagues most raw talents at this point in time. There’s plenty of time for him to reclaim the spark that made him a top-three draft pick. Will that come with the Cowboys? That’s anyone’s guess at this point.