Cowboys Trey Lance hype train has officially gone off the rails

The Dallas Cowboys found their backup plan for Dak Prescott in 49ers castoff Trey Lance, the former No. 3 pick in the draft who lost his starting job to Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy and then was beat out for the backup job in San Francisco by Sam Darnold.

Lance's NFL future is as big an uncertainty as there is in the NFL right now. On the one hand, he was considered a Top 3 talent. On the other hand, his pro trajectory has taken quite a hit, enough that the 49ers flat-out gave up on him this year.

But the Cowboys are banking on him still holding value, at least a fourth-rounder's worth. And they're talking him up like he does.

Trey Lance draws an "A Beautiful Mind" reference from Cowboys

On Thursday, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters that Lance has impressed the team with his "A Beautiful Mind"-like approach.

“[He's] very hard working," McCarthy said, per Michael Gehlken. "We have a quarterback meeting room area. He’s pretty much kind of taken it over. The grease boards look like ‘Beautiful Mind.’ …We just need to work on the extra things, particularly in the area of footwork.”

For those who don't get the reference, "A Beautiful Mind" is a film about genius mathematician John Nash featuring Russell Crowe. In the movie, Crowe as Nash scribbles mathematical formulas all over chalkboards, windows and other surfaces.

All that scribbling could be a good thing as Lance shows coaches how quickly he can comprehend the Cowboys' playbook.

However, that doesn't mean he's going to unseat Cooper Rush as Prescott's backup any time soon. He couldn't beat out Darnold, after all.

The Cowboys will need to put Lance on the field to prove he's still got potential as an NFL quarterback. Until that happens, all the Beautiful Mind-ing in the world won't convince the doubters.