San Francisco 49ers Consider Trey Lance Is A Franchise Quarterback
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The San Francisco 49ers picked Trey Lance No. 3 in the 2021 NFL Draft. (Photo by Gregory Shamus / Getty … [+]
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Last month’s drama came to a head for the San Francisco 49ers less than an hour after the 2021 NFL draft in Cleveland on Thursday.
San Francisco moved up from 12th overall to third choice to find a possible heir for current starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
After the 49ers became more connected to the Alabama product Mac Jones, they pretty much shocked everyone by choosing the North Dakota product Trey Lance with the third choice.
Lance has been seen as a likely top 10 pick throughout the NFL draft process, despite not throwing a pass in a game since 2019. Keep in mind that the 2020 FBS college football season has been postponed to spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was at this point that Lance decided to prepare for the pros.
To say the 49ers, made up of head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, were delighted with the selection would be an understatement.
“He will be a threat at all times. As soon as we had time to contact him, we fell in love with him. He checked every single box,” Shanahan told reporters who followed the selection.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the 49ers head coach noted they knew Lance would be the pick in the past few weeks.
As for Lance, he couldn’t be happier to have the chance to be the face of the 49ers and their franchise quarterback – the call from San Francisco was “surreal”.
As a quarterback with a double threat, Lance dominated the inferior competition with the state of North Dakota as early as 2019. That season, the 6-foot-4 signal caller record was 2,786 yards with 26 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Lance added 1,100 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground.
His tape tells us the story of one of the best players in the 2021 NFL Draft, including number 1 Trevor Lawrence.
“One-year-old starter who blinded 2019. Lance is ripe for his age, but will only be 20 years old by the time NFL Drafts in 2021,” noted NFL Media’s Lance Zierlein in his scouting report on Lance. “He’s a rare double threat quarterback in that his job is to establish his own protection and read the entire field. Coaches rave about his soccer IQ and his film work. They believe he will come into the league more football enthusiast than most of the quarterbacks in this draft. “
Realistically, Lance is in the best position to be a quarterback in the 2021 NFL Draft as he could very well sit behind Jimmy Garoppolo for a season before taking office. He also has a great skill position group in George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel, as well as Trent Williams, the best left tackle in the game.
What Trey Lance Pick means to Jimmy Garoppolo
What the Trey Lance selection means to Jimmy Garoppolo. (Photo by Abbie Parr / Getty Images)
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Obviously, this is an important consideration after choosing Lance # 3 overall. Reports leading up to the annual NFL draft indicated the 49ers would be trading Garoppolo during the three-day event, with the New England Patriots seen as favorites for landing the Super Bowl quarterback.
That changed after New England picked Mac Jones with 15th overall victory. A few selections earlier, another team from the Chicago Bears that were at Garoppolo had called in signal caller Justin Fields. Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos traded for Teddy Bridgewater on Wednesday.
The 49ers are currently running out of potential trading partners. The Washington Football team missed the top 5 quarterbacks on Thursday night. You might make sense. The same goes for the Houston Texans, depending on Deshaun Watson’s legal situation.
If San Francisco can’t find value for Garoppolo in a trade, it might make sense for the team now to keep him as a stop-gap starter for the next season before turning to Lance in 2022. This depends a lot on the quarterback’s own thinking process.
