Is Trey Lance ready to start?

[profootballtalk.nbcsports.com] Is Trey Lance ready to start?
Posted by Mike Florio on May 5, 2022, 8:40 PM EDT

San Francisco 49ers v Tennessee Titans
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It’s a question that has percolated throughout the league as the 49ers have considered their clumsy drive toward a house in the Hamptons with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Is Trey Lance ready to be the starter?

There’s a line of thinking that he isn’t, or at least that the 49ers at least fear he isn’t.


It would explain the reluctance to trade or cut Jimmy Garoppolo. Although they now claim they were close to striking a deal before he had surgery (unbeknownst to the team), no deal is done until it’s done.

Lance didn’t play nearly as much in 2021 as most expected. Coach Kyle Shanahan seemed to be willing to use both quarterbacks as the regular season approached, but then Shanahan didn’t do that. When Lance did play, he did nothing to create a sense of inevitability that he was on track to quickly validate the decision to invest the 12th pick in the 2021 draft, two more first-round picks, and a third-round pick to get him.

Lance still could perform very well, as soon as this year. Second-year quarterbacks have a recent history of taking the league by storm, from Carson Wentz in 2017 to Patrick Mahomes in 2018 to Lamar Jackson in 2019 to Kyler Murray in 2020 to Joe Burrow in 2021. None of them had an incumbent starter still lingering, however, when they embarked on their second NFL seasons.

The 49ers don’t seem to realize, or care, that the ongoing presence of Garoppolo on the roster could be keeping Lance from settling in, from getting comfortable. Some would say that, if Lance is destined for greatness, he’ll shrug at this minor distraction. Others would say that the unsettled situation with Garoppolo signifies the kind of dysfunction that would keep any quarterback from thriving.

The 49ers continue to keep Garoppolo on the roster. They continue to sell publicly the notion that they’ll keep him into the regular season. If that’s not just posturing, they need to hope that Lance’s ability to do the job moving forward isn’t hampered by the ongoing presence of the guy who took the team to a Super Bowl and nearly back to another one.