Why the Washington Football Team should draft Trey Lance

This piece is part of the Riggo’s Rag Roundtable quarterback debate. For more Washington Football Team QB options, click here.

The Washington Football Team is looking for a long-term solution at quarterback, but it will not be an easy task in 2021. One such quarterback could be available in the upcoming NFL draft.

The secret is out. You are being bombarded today with many solutions for the Washington Football Team’s quarterback plans for the 2021 offseason. Will the solution come in free agency? Will Washington trade for a current NFL quarterback? Is Washington going to select a quarterback in the draft?

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There are various choices out there. Sam Darnold, Marcus Mariota, Mac Jones, and Justin Fields are certainly intriguing, but today’s online debate here at Riggo’s Rag will provide you with some excellent insights into these quarterbacks, including my choice. We’re going to have all the answers today, but the best overall option is North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance. With all due respect to my esteemed colleagues, here’s why.

Why the Washington Football Team should draft Trey Lance

Lance could easily be the future at quarterback for Washington over the next 15 or 20 years. However, there is a catch and it’s an initial hurdle that the front office must clear if they wish to draft Lance this spring. It will require a trade.

Trey Lance is generally rated as the fourth-best quarterback in the 2021 draft class. So let’s explore what it would require in a trade for the rights to draft the North Dakota State star.

The 2017 Kansas City-Buffalo Bills trade for Patrick Mahomes provides us with the baseline for such a trade today. Kansas City offered their first and third-round draft picks in 2017 and a 2018 first-round selection.

For the purposes of our discussion today, let’s assume Washington has traded their 2021 first and third-round draft choices and 2022 first and fourth-round picks to Detroit. Washington now possesses the seventh overall pick in this year’s draft. The picks traded are a bit more than the Chiefs-Bills trade, but the Chiefs moved to 10th in the draft and the Washington Football Team is moving up to the seventh slot.

The trade has occurred and Washington selects Lance on the first night of the draft. Some fans are very happy while others are mad that several draft assets were given to the Lions for one player.

At the risk of sounding impertinent, naysayers should know that Trey Lance is the real deal. He won’t be the starter from day one and may need to learn the nuances of the NFL for half a season or more. However, he will be a great quarterback for the Washington Football Team far into the future. Let’s explain why this is possible.

It’s true that Lance has just one season as a starter, but that didn’t seem to be of any concern for Ron Rivera when he drafted Cam Newton out of Auburn. No one blinked an eye when the Cardinals selected one-year starter Kyler Murray of Oklahoma in the first round.

Lance is coming from a program that wins national championships nearly every year and produces many NFL-ready players continuously. Next, let’s talk about his abilities and how it translates to becoming an NFL franchise quarterback.

At 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, Lance has the prototypical size that defines most quarterbacks in the NFL today. His overall athleticism is simply superb. He can deliver pinpoint passes from the pocket or on the run. He can play from any shotgun formation and run the “Run-Pass Option” (RPO) with a decisive coolness and do so effectively.

Lance can play under center with considerable ease. He can easily extend the play out of a collapsing pocket by using his legs and speed. The velocity on his passes is poetry in motion and the accuracy is solid. As a quarterback, Lance’s talents and leadership can only be described as “natural”.

Lance can move the chains as needed and provide the spark if you need a quick touchdown or a key two-minute drive. His leadership in the locker room is apparent and yet, Lance is still a humble young man from Marshall, Minnesota. Friends and neighbors of the Lance family talk about a young man who is true to his Midwestern values and upbringing. Trey Lance, the young man, will bring all of this and more to Washington.

My fellow contributors are making their cases for other quarterbacks today with piercing clarity, but Trey Lance could be the best overall solution to the quarterback woes that have plagued the Washington Football Team since 1993.

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Click the links below to read about each QB option.

Roundtable: Which QB should the Washington Football Team target?

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