North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance is getting a lot of hype and could join Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields are projected to be the first two quarterbacks taken in the 2021 NFL Draft but they may be joined by North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance who is generating a ton of hype and hoopla after his redshirt freshman season.
Lance is not a household name like Lawrence and Fields who are the leading favorites to win the Heisman and could lead Clemson and Ohio State to a National Championship Game. They were the top two recruits in their high school class and dominating the college football landscape. Lance, however, is the latest quarterback to star for the FCS superpower and could join Carson Wentz to go from the Bison to the NFL.
You may be asking yourself, “who is this quarterback from a small school that’s getting all this first-round hype after one college season?” And that’s a perfectly sound and valid question to ask. It’s a question I asked myself when I put together my 2021 NFL Draft Big Board. I knew what Lance did in his first year under center for the Bison but is he really a first-round pick already?
Lance is not a finished product, naturally, after only one season of FCS football. That’s not going to be enough to make him a top-10 pick. But it’s a great way to start his career and he’s put himself in a position to vault himself into that territory by the time he does decide to declare for the NFL Draft.
Whether it’s in 2021 after his redshirt sophomore year or in 2022 after his third year starting for the Bison, what’s clear is Lance has rare gifts and talent that will have NFL teams fawning over the latest small school gem.
The 6-foot-3, 224-pound Minnesota native already has ideal NFL size and has come a long way from when he was a low three-star recruit who was the No. 49 dual-threat quarterback in the nation, according to 247Sports. As a prep athlete, Lance threw for 1,386 yards and 14 touchdowns as a senior while adding 641 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. He also starred as a strong safety where he had 54 tackles and three interceptions.
He left Marshall High School with the school record of 33 touchdowns. He was a captain in football and basketball but didn’t garner attention from the FBS so he went to North Dakota State and redshirted as a freshman.
Sitting behind Easton Stick who sat behind Wentz was a blessing for Lance who had time to grow, learn, develop, get stronger and wait for his turn to deploy all his newfound skills.
“The redshirt year was huge for me,” Lance told 247Sports. “I definitely needed it, just to have that learning curve and to learn a lot from Easton, to do everything I can to copy him – steal his notes and stuff like that. I definitely needed that time to grow on and off the field. Leadership qualities and then obviously on the field, learning new concepts, really learning a new language.
It didn’t take long for Lance to make a big impression.
As a redshirt freshman, he won a laundry list of accolades and honors, including the Walter Payton Award, when he became the first freshman to win the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. He also took home the Jerry Rice Award and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2020 FCS Championship Game over James Madison as the Bison won their eighth national title in the last nine seasons. capping a 16-0 season, the first in college football since 1894.
In short, he was the best player on the best team in the division they played. His stats were eye-popping and stuff that would be difficult to pull off in a video game.
Lance Led the FCS with a 180.6 pass efficiency rating, was second in yards per pass attempt (9.71), fifth in completion percentage (66.9) and he set an all-college record with 288 career consecutive passes without an interception. His 28 passing touchdowns (second-best in program history) to zero interceptions is unheard of, on any level. He finished with a program single-season record for passing efficiency, total offense with 3,886 yards, including a program freshman record with 1,100 yards and a team-best 14 rushing scores.
42 total touchdowns and not a single interception. It feels odd to type and even weirder to read. It has to be a typo, right? Nope. He’s that good.
And as a reminder, this was as a redshirt freshman. His first football since his senior year of high school two years prior. Just imagine what type of leap he’ll make between last year and this year. A repeat Walter Payton Award and another national title is the beginning of the lofty expectations for Lance.
Beyond that, his stats take a back seat to the traits and skills he displays on the field. He’s already proven he can be a productive player who wins at a high level. Now, he just needs to prove he can do it again.
That’s a similar college trajectory to former Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson who played in two national championships, winning one and was a No. 12 pick of the Houston Texans. That’s one player Lance has been compared to in the pre-draft process.
NFL Draft and talent evaluators gushed about Lance’s ability in an article in The Athletic ($) from Bruce Feldman.
So if Lance is the next Watson, the hype is not only justified and real, it might be a little tempered at the moment. Just wait until the 2020 season gets underway and more people watch Bison games to see what Lance does.
With more attention being paid to him on and off the field, it’ll be interesting to see how Lance responds. I fully expect him to thrive and while I don’t think he can surpass Lawrence and Fields in the quarterback hierarchy, he should be a lock to be a first-rounder and potentially taken inside the top-10 picks.
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