Trey Lance, the young quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers is currently competing for the position of starting quarterback. These preseason games were a chance for him to prove his worth and solidify his future with the 49ers. But unfortunately, he ended this Sunday’s preseason game against the Raiders with only one touchdown and a passer rating of 111.0.
After this game, the third-year quarterback was called the lowest-graded offensive player. However, the team’s coach, Kyle Shanahan, has very different views about Lance. He thinks that Lance is a productive and decisive player despite his poor performance in the recent game.
Shanahan observed Lance being decisive and effective on multiple plays
The Head coach of the team Kyle Shanahan recently talked about Trey Lance’s performance in the 49ers’ 34-7 loss to the Raiders. Despite the team’s loss, the coach chose to emphasize the positive aspects of Lance’s play, highlighting his effectiveness decisiveness on the field.
He shared that despite the fact the game ended badly for the team, every decision that the quarterback made was right.
“I thought he played a lot better as it ended. He came out, the first play was tough. The corner keyed his three step drop and sat on it,” Shanahan said.
He explained that the young QB made the right decision to move the ball toward the tight end as he was trying to protect the ball. But the miscommunication between the players led to the sack.
“[He] did the right thing, he reset to go to the tight end over the ball, but one of our eligibles busted on the play, and put two guys in the same spot. He had to protect the ball and had to take the sack there.”
The first quarter of the game was extremely challenging for the team as they struggled to gain yards and faced multiple sacks. But the coach explained that the second sack was not the quarterback’s fault.
“Sack on the third-and-8 wasn’t his fault. We kind of had a jail-break on it. The two after, that I thought he could have gotten rid of it a little before the sack. A couple of other things he just hesitated on a hair, earlier in the game.”
During the first half of the game, the team finally started playing better. The first half ended with Trey Lance completing 10 of his 15 attempts for 112 yards and one touchdown. The quarterback proved his effectiveness and decisiveness. The coach explained various situations in which the young QB was decisive.
“He made a huge third down on a third-and-8, I think it was to [Chris] Conley. Made a very decisive one on two-minute that got us down there to Troy [Fumagalli]. Ended up doing some good things. I wish we could have converted that short yardage and kept him out there a little longer, but that’s some of the frustrating things about preseason.”
The way Shanahan has highlighted the positive aspects of Trey Lance’s game and appreciated his effectiveness and decisiveness on the field we can expect the coach to give him more chances on the field.
Undeniable reality about Trey Lance’s future as 49ers QB
Trey Lance was the third pick in NFL Draft 2021 by the San Francisco 49ers. For him, the team gave up many round picks. However, things haven’t been going well with the quarterback.
In 2022 when the 49ers decided to move on from Jimmy Garoppolo and give Lance a chance as the starting quarterback, he suffered an ankle injury. Because of this, he couldn’t play as the starting quarterback of the team.
This season again the 23-year-old is competing for the position of starting quarterback with Brock Purdy. Currently, Purdy is not playing because of elbow surgery but he’s the starting quarterback of the 49ers.
The only way Trey Lance can get this position is if Purdy suffers some sort of setback because of his elbow surgery or any other injury. However, the chances of this happening are very thin. Even if somehow Purdy is out of the picture, the second choice of the team will be Sam Darnold.
The HC has decided to give Sam Darnold more time on the field. Even in the upcoming game against the Denver Broncos, Sam will play as the quarterback. Therefore, the future of Trey Lance with the 49ers remains uncertain.
The truth is that no matter how much Lance improves, he’ll never get the main quarterback position from the 49ers because the team believes that they have found a “real deal” by drafting Brock Purdy. If Purdy remains healthy and performs well, the team might never consider giving Trey Lance a chance.
