Both Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have this week poured cold water on the notion former 49ers quarterback Trey Lance could provide the Cowboys with any information about San Francisco to turn Sunday's blockbuster primetime matchup in favor of Dallas.

On Thursday, Lance joined them in dismissing that notion.

The 2021 third overall pick, who was traded by the Niners to the Cowboys in August in exchange for a fourth-round selection in the 2024 draft, was asked about what he can do as Dallas' third quarterback to help his current employers defeat his old team.

His response was in line with those of general manager Lynch and head coach Shanahan.

"I’m doing everything I can to help, but at the same time, these guys have done a lot of prep on the Niners with those big games the last two years, so they know a lot about the offense," Lance told reporters. "I’m here now, so I’m doing everything I can to try to help."

It's tough to dispute Lance's comments. He may have an excellent knowledge of both the 49ers' offense and defense but, with the Cowboys having prepared for playoff games with San Francisco in each of the last two seasons, it's unlikely Lance can add much more to what Dallas doesn't already know.

Asked about Lance providing insight, Lynch told KNBR on Friday:

"There is information you can share. My experience with that as a player is it tends to screw you up more than it does help you. I mean, this isn’t the Houston Astros over there banging a drum for fastballs. He can’t do that over there. And now, everything’s through the headset. I think the closest thing to it, back in the day, when coordinators actually used to signal things in, you could glean some things, and people did. … There was more you could glean, but I do know that playing the quarterback position, he’s probably been more privy to a lot of the scheme thoughts and all that, but I don’t think there’s a whole lot."

Shanahan, meanwhile, jokingly expressed hope Lance's assistance could be a distraction to the Cowboys when pressed on what the man once tabbed as the future of the 49ers franchise could reveal about their offense.

"As much as most coaches can," Shanahan replied. "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 them all the time and making them focus totally on that instead of the simple stuff of watching the tape."

Unfortunately for the Niners, the Cowboys will have watched the tape, and the chess match that will see Kyle Shanahan and Steve Wilks go up against Mike McCarthy and Dan Quinn promises to produce one of the most fascinating battles of the season, regardless of any input from Lance.

49ers have reason for hope they can neutralize potential Cowboys advantage

Steve Wilks is rightly confident.