Since being drafted third overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, Trey Lance hasn’t gotten many opportunities to lead a quarterback room.
Lance was taken by the 49ers, who originally anticipated him becoming their QB1 after Jimmy Garoppolo and traded draft capital to land him. Instead, Lance got hurt in 2022 and Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy stepped in and shined for San Francisco, winning the starting job he has held onto ever since.
That led to Lance being traded to the Cowboys, and he backed up Dak Prescott in 2024 before hitting free agency. But even at age 24, there’s reportedly a chance that Lance could soon be moving on from the NFL for another football league.
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Here’s what to know about the rumors that Lance could be heading to the Canadian Football League.
Is Trey Lance signing with the CFL?
There haven’t been any official moves made yet, but Lance was added to the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders’ negotiation list on Monday, according to TSN Football Insider Dave Naylor.
Trey’s father, Carlton, played one season for the Roughriders as a cornerback after spending time on the football team at Southwest Minnesota State University. Carlton Lance also later spent time with the London Monarchs of the World League.
Naylor added that CFL teams “never put players on the [negotiation] list just to make noise,” so there appears to be some fuel to the chance that Lance joins his father’s former squad.
Although Lance, currently a free agent, could likely continue his NFL career as a backup, there is some logic behind a potential jump to the CFL for the quarterback even outside of the familial connections between he and the Roughriders. For one, Lance has had virtually no opportunities to prove himself on an NFL field; he’s thrown just 143 career passes in four years.
Joining the CFL could give Lance the first real starting quarterback opportunity he’s been waiting for since leaving North Dakota State and becoming an NFL Draft prospect. There are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic on his ceiling, as he led the Bison to a 16-0 record in 2019 while throwing for 28 touchdowns, rushing for 14 more and throwing no interceptions.
Lance’s official decision on joining the CFL remains to be seen, but joining the league could allow him to get some much-needed reps and potentially prove to NFL teams why he could still someday be a franchise quarterback.
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Trey Lance contract
Lance has gotten just one NFL contract so far, his rookie deal that he signed in San Francisco, which took him through the 2024 season.
According to Spotrac, Lance just completed the final year of that four-year deal worth around $34.1 million. He had a cap hit of $5,310,714 this past season for Dallas. Now a free agent, Lance could either sign as a backup with another NFL team or potentially pursue a starting job in the CFL.
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What’s a negotiation list?
As the Roughriders did with Lance, CFL teams can add up to 45 players to their negotiation list, which gives them exclusive rights to negotiate a potential contract with those players. Being added to the list doesn’t always mean a player is interested in joining the league, but if they are, they can then only talk about a deal with the team that added them to their negotiation list.
Any player on a negotiation list is eligible to discuss a contract as long as they aren’t currently under contract with another team or league. Lance is currently a free agent in the NFL, so he could choose to sign with the Roughriders at any time.
CFL teams are required to unveil 10 players from their negotiation lists twice each year. The other 35 players on the list are only known by the team and the league.
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