Kyle Shanahan dissing Trey Lance gives Cowboys more motivation for Week 5

The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers will meet on Sunday Night Football in a game-of-the-year candidate.

All eyes will be glued on the chess match between Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, as well as the QB matchup between Dak Prescott and Brock Purdy, who combined have thrown for nine touchdowns and one interception and are completing over 71% of their passes.

While this is a revenge game for Prescott, Trey Lance won't be able to extract revenge on his former team unless (heaven forbid) Prescott and Cooper Rush suffered injuries. As the Cowboys emergency QB on game days, only then would Lance get to take a snap against the 49ers.

Still, Lance could yet help the Cowboys exorcise their 49ers demons.

He spent two seasons with San Francisco and likely has a decent understand of Shanahan's complicated playbook. Or does he? Per Shanahan, the Niners would be best served if Lance spills all the beans on his former offense.

Kyle Shanahan seemingly disses Cowboys' Trey Lance's knowledge of 49ers playbook.

Here's what Shanahan said when he was asked how much Lance can reveal to Mike McCarthy and Co. about the 49ers offense.

"As much as most coaches can. You can see the plays on tape, you can explain what we look at and stuff like that, which usually you can when you can stack up a lot of tape over years, and we’ve been here for a while and previous. So hopefully he’s talking to him all the time and making them focus totally on that instead of the simple stuff of watching the tape."

This quote isn't an outright shot at Lance, but it does downplay the former No. 3 overall pick's knowledge of the 49ers offense and what value he could give the Cowboys.

While Lance might know how San Francisco approached matchups against Dallas in the past, that doesn't necessarily mean Shanahan will take a similar approach. The film from those games has already been dissected every which way by McCarthy and company.

The only useful information Lance could share with the Cowboys is how the 49ers distinguished Dallas' defensive strengths and weaknesses. That'd be more helpful than anything he could provide about the 49ers' playbook, which likely changes week-to-week depending on the opponent.

Nevertheless, Shanahan didn't speak glowingly of his former QB and that alone should give the Cowboys extra motivation to hand it to San Francisco. Though Lance is new to Dallas, there's no way Shanahan's comments went over well in the locker room.

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