The Trey Lance thread

[thesack12]

He clearly outperformed Lance in the preseason. Camp reports were pretty consistent that Lance looked better, with lots of reports that once Darnold came off the first read, things almost always went poorly. Granted they both left a lot to be desired, at least in terms of completion numbers, etc. Lance was awful in the first preseason game, but he ended his preseason looking really solid. That's part of why the timing of the decision/announcement was so curious. If the preseason games mattered so much, why not let Lance have a third to show if he could build on the end of the second?

Additionally, I haven't watched the entire third preseason game yet, but Darnold looked quite shaky in the early drives, just falling apart on third down repeatedly. Wouldn't it have been nice to factor that game in before making the final call on these guys? Darnold had trouble sustaining drives in the preseason, which is one of the big complaints about Lance. He's not a methodical guy like Purdy who finds the weaknesses in the D and exploits them over and over to march down the field. He's more feast or famine. But the feasts with Lance already seemed better than with Darnold.

I don't know, you had Maiocco saying things along the lines Darnold is the most talented thrower of a ball the 49ers have ever had. Granted there is recency bias and hyperbole in that statement for sure. And of course there is a lot more to quarterbacking than throwing a football. Still, Maiocco has been covering the team since the late 90's, so a statement like that carries some weight. Certainly more than when Grant Cohn says "Trey Lance is the best QB prospect to come out since John Elway." Nevermind the fact that Grant was already on record saying they should draft Kyle Pitts at 3, then take Kellen Mond in the 3rd round. But that speaks more to Grant being a click baity biased buffoon more than anything and is off topic.

I didn't really read many glowing reports for Lance coming out during camp. I seem to recall that some reports were saying that at times Allen looked better than Lance.

I was on vacation, so I didn't watch any of the 3rd preseason game. So I can't comment on at all on that one. Still, the 9ers already had a pretty good idea on where Trey was at and know him intimately. Short of one of the most amazing preseason performances you've ever seen, I doubt whatever happened in that last game was going to tilt the decision much at all.

So I don't think the timing of the decision was odd. If anything it made sense to do it then, in that you do it prior to roster cutdown to try and spur trade interest in him. There is always a flurry of trades in that week or 2 prior to final cut downs.

Circling back to Darnold specifically, again I'll say I'm not a fan. He's been by and large bad so far in his career. Still he does posess a good amount of raw talent. Like Trey, Sam was also a 3rd overall draft pick. So there is a chance that Kyle can unlock Darnold. Its not like the 9ers kept a guy with zero short term or long term hope like a Nate Sudfeld. Compared to Trey, Darnold was the better short term option and could actually be a better long term option as well. Time will tell.

Darnold absolutely has arm talent. And if the first read is open, he's shown he's pretty good. He just sucks at almost everything else. Maybe Shanahan unlocks that, but I'm not holding my breath. We saw flashes of that indecisiveness when the first read wasn't there, and that's his biggest problem.

Again, Lance has some pretty similar questions. But unlike Darnold, Lance hasn't had 55 NFL starts to improve those things (and failed to do so).

Agree with everything you said here.

However, once the team decided that Trey wasn't the guy it became best for both Lance and the team to make a clean break and move forward without each other. Team gets an asset, while being able to focus on developing Purdy. Trey gets a fresh start and clean start, while having a lot of pressure taken off his shoulders.

We knew from jumpstreet that there was a relatively high possibility that the Lance pick wasn't going to work out. We came to that conclusion a lot earlier than any of us might have expected, but this outcome was always in play.

[Big J]

I don't know, you had Maiocco saying things along the lines Darnold is the most talented thrower of a ball the 49ers have ever had. Granted there is recency bias and hyperbole in that statement for sure. And of course there is a lot more to quarterbacking than throwing a football. Still, Maiocco has been covering the team since the late 90's, so a statement like that carries some weight. Certainly more than when Grant Cohn says "Trey Lance is the best QB prospect to come out since John Elway." Nevermind the fact that Grant was already on record saying they should draft Kyle Pitts at 3, then take Kellen Mond in the 3rd round. But that speaks more to Grant being a click baity biased buffoon more than anything and is off topic.

I didn't really read many glowing reports for Lance coming out during camp. I seem to recall that some reports were saying that at times Allen looked better than Lance.

I was on vacation, so I didn't watch any of the 3rd preseason game. So I can't comment on at all on that one. Still, the 9ers already had a pretty good idea on where Trey was at and know him intimately. Short of one of the most amazing preseason performances you've ever seen, I doubt whatever happened in that last game was going to tilt the decision much at all.

So I don't think the timing of the decision was odd. If anything it made sense to do it then, in that you do it prior to roster cutdown to try and spur trade interest in him. There is always a flurry of trades in that week or 2 prior to final cut downs.

Circling back to Darnold specifically, again I'll say I'm not a fan. He's been by and large bad so far in his career. Still he does posess a good amount of raw talent. Like Trey, Sam was also a 3rd overall draft pick. So there is a chance that Kyle can unlock Darnold. Its not like the 9ers kept a guy with zero short term or long term hope like a Nate Sudfeld. Compared to Trey, Darnold was the better short term option and could actually be a better long term option as well. Time will tell.

Darnold absolutely has arm talent. And if the first read is open, he's shown he's pretty good. He just sucks at almost everything else. Maybe Shanahan unlocks that, but I'm not holding my breath. We saw flashes of that indecisiveness when the first read wasn't there, and that's his biggest problem.

Again, Lance has some pretty similar questions. But unlike Darnold, Lance hasn't had 55 NFL starts to improve those things (and failed to do so).

Agree with everything you said here.

However, once the team decided that Trey wasn't the guy it became best for both Lance and the team to make a clean break and move forward without each other. Team gets an asset, while being able to focus on developing Purdy. Trey gets a fresh start and clean start, while having a lot of pressure taken off his shoulders.

We knew from jumpstreet that there was a relatively high possibility that the Lance pick wasn't going to work out. We came to that conclusion a lot earlier than any of us might have expected, but this outcome was always in play.

Purdy isn't going to develop past what he is. His ceiling is incredibly low due to his limitations.

[Pattersonca65]

Darnold absolutely has arm talent. And if the first read is open, he's shown he's pretty good. He just sucks at almost everything else. Maybe Shanahan unlocks that, but I'm not holding my breath. We saw flashes of that indecisiveness when the first read wasn't there, and that's his biggest problem.

Again, Lance has some pretty similar questions. But unlike Darnold, Lance hasn't had 55 NFL starts to improve those things (and failed to do so).

Agree with everything you said here.

However, once the team decided that Trey wasn't the guy it became best for both Lance and the team to make a clean break and move forward without each other. Team gets an asset, while being able to focus on developing Purdy. Trey gets a fresh start and clean start, while having a lot of pressure taken off his shoulders.

We knew from jumpstreet that there was a relatively high possibility that the Lance pick wasn't going to work out. We came to that conclusion a lot earlier than any of us might have expected, but this outcome was always in play.

Purdy isn't going to develop past what he is. His ceiling is incredibly low due to his limitations.

Well the coaching staff didn't see much if any development potential from Lance and neither many other NFL teams

[Big J]

Agree with everything you said here.

However, once the team decided that Trey wasn't the guy it became best for both Lance and the team to make a clean break and move forward without each other. Team gets an asset, while being able to focus on developing Purdy. Trey gets a fresh start and clean start, while having a lot of pressure taken off his shoulders.

We knew from jumpstreet that there was a relatively high possibility that the Lance pick wasn't going to work out. We came to that conclusion a lot earlier than any of us might have expected, but this outcome was always in play.

Purdy isn't going to develop past what he is. His ceiling is incredibly low due to his limitations.

Well the coaching staff didn't see much if any development potential from Lance and neither many other NFL teams

Then why did they trade 3 1st rounders for him?

[Pattersonca65]

Purdy isn't going to develop past what he is. His ceiling is incredibly low due to his limitations.

Well the coaching staff didn't see much if any development potential from Lance and neither many other NFL teams

Then why did they trade 3 1st rounders for him?

They made a mistake. Happens all the time with QBs.

[Harry Palmer]

Well the coaching staff didn't see much if any development potential from Lance and neither many other NFL teams

Sorry, but this frustrates me.

The organization took the guy with the least amount of game reps of any highly drafted qb in history, and the consensus view, including that of the Niners themselves, was that the key to his development was getting a lot of reps . They then proceeded to give him the least amount of reps of any highly drafted qb in history. Including splitting reps this preseason with Sam ****ing Darnold AND Brandon Allen. And then were reportedly frustrated by his lack of development.

How is that frustration in any way with Trey and not themselves? And btw despite the record setting fewest reps both before and after being highly drafted, Trey did improve. First in the area many said was his biggest non-experience related weakness, ie his mechanics. He even went out and got help on his own. Kyle when asked about Trey getting outside help said it’s “impossible” to change their mechanics by the pro level and any who do resort back to muscle memory come live play. And Trey proved that wrong. And he was developing in other ways. After a bad first game in his second/final game PFF graded him higher than any of the other qb’s games. And who do you think had the highest overall QB rating of any Niner qb this preseason? Trey Lance.

https://www.footballdb.com/teams/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/stats

And then they traded him before his last preseason game because Kyle had made up his mind coming off Trey having the highest PFF graded game of any 9er qb this preseason (and again ending up with the highest qb rating overall for the preseason!) and accomplishing (on his own) what Kyle said was impossible and fixing what had been viewed as his biggest weakness behind lack of reps, and did so because of…his lack of development? This makes zero sense to me, it’s unfair, inaccurate, and misplaced. Even without giving Trey the benefit of the doubt that should be given to someone they had invested so much in, Trey had last snapped the ball as the starter before breaking his ankle.

I get that even though Trey had the highest preseason qbr on the team, you give Purdy QB1 because of how he played last year, but the only sane thing was to also to ‘give’ Trey the QB2. Instead of Sam ****ing Darnold who btw should have been blowing Trey out of the water, given his quadrajillion more NFL snaps and septuavillion more college snaps and much more preseason snaps with the 1’s. And also remember this, both Sam and Purdy had played a lot more and a lot more recently than Trey, but got zero of the ‘rust’ defense Purdy did. Again, both other qbs had played BOTH more AND more recently than Trey, but no one gave him an inch of wiggle room for that, and defined his entire lack of development on his play early in his first game snap in just under a year.

How does this make sense to anyone? The only way this makes sense to me was Sam Darnold was QB2 from the day he signed unless he imploded, and many insiders were saying this from the jump. And it also explains giving more ‘key to Trey’s development’ game snaps to the combination of Darnold and Brandon Allen. Allen getting any reps at all in preseason games under the circumstances can imo only be explained by their somehow being prescient that he would be QB3.

[Big J]

Well the coaching staff didn't see much if any development potential from Lance and neither many other NFL teams

Then why did they trade 3 1st rounders for him?

They made a mistake. Happens all the time with QBs.

What other team has traded 3 first founders for a QB only to barely give him reps and then trade him for a 4th rounder? That doesn’t happen all the time.

[thesack12]

Its funny that within 49er circles there is almost no talk about the starting quarterback. That would be odd for any team going into the season. Yet in this case, not only do they have a young QB which proved to have a significant amount of success in his rookie year. Young QB's drive conversations, but apparently not in this case. On top of that this guy also is one of the best NFL stories you'll hear in terms of coming from out of nowhere. In addition, that same guy has returned from serious injury in super fast fashion.

There is an immense amount of things that could be talked about Brock Purdy, yet its been super quiet on that front. All the chatter is driven by the most talked about QB3 in the history of the NFL. Which who admittedly didn't see the field much, but even when he did he was largely underwhelming. Unfortunately, Trey is not likely to see the field anytime soon in Dallas either so the "what if" type of conversations will probably live a long life.

Anyways, I'll be glad when kickoff arrives this Sunday. It will be nice to have something not only tangible to talk about but something that doesn't revolve around QB depth charts, reps, and botched trade ups.

[CrimsonCrew]

Darnold absolutely has arm talent. And if the first read is open, he's shown he's pretty good. He just sucks at almost everything else. Maybe Shanahan unlocks that, but I'm not holding my breath. We saw flashes of that indecisiveness when the first read wasn't there, and that's his biggest problem.

Again, Lance has some pretty similar questions. But unlike Darnold, Lance hasn't had 55 NFL starts to improve those things (and failed to do so).

Agree with everything you said here.

However, once the team decided that Trey wasn't the guy it became best for both Lance and the team to make a clean break and move forward without each other. Team gets an asset, while being able to focus on developing Purdy. Trey gets a fresh start and clean start, while having a lot of pressure taken off his shoulders.

We knew from jumpstreet that there was a relatively high possibility that the Lance pick wasn't going to work out. We came to that conclusion a lot earlier than any of us might have expected, but this outcome was always in play.

Purdy isn't going to develop past what he is. His ceiling is incredibly low due to his limitations.

Why would you assume that Purdy isn't going to develop any further? He was a rookie last year. How many rookies never grow as a player? And why would we expect that Purdy wouldn't grow? All reports are that he's a very hard worker, natural leader, committed guy with a chip on his shoulder and eager to prove that he was overlooked.

And is his ceiling incredibly low? Seems to me that the offense was humming when he was at the helm last year. Sure, he may not have the ceiling of a Mahomes or an Allen, but he has a very high floor, and he's already shown a pretty darn good ceiling.

Again, there are perfectly legitimate questions about his ability to elevate a team with more league-average skill players, but that discussion is at least two years away.

[CrimsonCrew]

Purdy isn't going to develop past what he is. His ceiling is incredibly low due to his limitations.

Well the coaching staff didn't see much if any development potential from Lance and neither many other NFL teams

Then why did they trade 3 1st rounders for him?

Is this a serious question? At the time, they expected him to develop. Lots to criticize in their decision-making process and the assumptions that they made. But it was reasonable to expect Lance to do a better job of reading the field when he finally got out there.

Lance did an excellent job - though not quite as good as the raw numbers suggest - of avoiding turnovers in college. In the limited pro reps he's had, he has shown some real weakness in terms of reading the field and understanding what defenders were doing. In less than a full game of preseason reps, he threw probably five or six turnover-worthy passes. That's flat-out bad, regardless of his limited playing time. And that's largely on Lance, in my opinion. It's maybe the biggest reason why he's gone.

[CrimsonCrew]

Well the coaching staff didn't see much if any development potential from Lance and neither many other NFL teams

Sorry, but this frustrates me.

The organization took the guy with the least amount of game reps of any highly drafted qb in history, and the consensus view, including that of the Niners themselves, was that the key to his development was getting a lot of reps . They then proceeded to give him the least amount of reps of any highly drafted qb in history. Including splitting reps this preseason with Sam ****ing Darnold AND Brandon Allen. And then were reportedly frustrated by his lack of development.

How is that frustration in any way with Trey and not themselves? And btw despite the record setting fewest reps both before and after being highly drafted, Trey did improve. First in the area many said was his biggest non-experience related weakness, ie his mechanics. He even went out and got help on his own. Kyle when asked about Trey getting outside help said it’s “impossible” to change their mechanics by the pro level and any who do resort back to muscle memory come live play. And Trey proved that wrong. And he was developing in other ways. After a bad first game in his second/final game PFF graded him higher than any of the other qb’s games. And who do you think had the highest overall QB rating of any Niner qb this preseason? Trey Lance.

https://www.footballdb.com/teams/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/stats

And then they traded him before his last preseason game because Kyle had made up his mind coming off Trey having the highest PFF graded game of any 9er qb this preseason (and again ending up with the highest qb rating overall for the preseason!) and accomplishing (on his own) what Kyle said was impossible and fixing what had been viewed as his biggest weakness behind lack of reps, and did so because of…his lack of development? This makes zero sense to me, it’s unfair, inaccurate, and misplaced. Even without giving Trey the benefit of the doubt that should be given to someone they had invested so much in, Trey had last snapped the ball as the starter before breaking his ankle.

I get that even though Trey had the highest preseason qbr on the team, you give Purdy QB1 because of how he played last year, but the only sane thing was to also to ‘give’ Trey the QB2. Instead of Sam ****ing Darnold who btw should have been blowing Trey out of the water, given his quadrajillion more NFL snaps and septuavillion more college snaps and much more preseason snaps with the 1’s. And also remember this, both Sam and Purdy had played a lot more and a lot more recently than Trey, but got zero of the ‘rust’ defense Purdy did. Again, both other qbs had played BOTH more AND more recently than Trey, but no one gave him an inch of wiggle room for that, and defined his entire lack of development on his play early in his first game snap in just under a year.

How does this make sense to anyone? The only way this makes sense to me was Sam Darnold was QB2 from the day he signed unless he imploded, and many insiders were saying this from the jump. And it also explains giving more ‘key to Trey’s development’ game snaps to the combination of Darnold and Brandon Allen. Allen getting any reps at all in preseason games under the circumstances can imo only be explained by their somehow being prescient that he would be QB3.

I agree with some but not all of this. Definitely agree with the flawed process of taking a guy who desperately needs playing time and then not showing patience with getting him that playing time. Though again, the injuries and Purdy's unexpected success played a huge role in that decision.

Kyle's attitude about mechanics is odd. If he didn't think Lance could improve his mechanics, then why take him? It was clear Lance's mechanics had some issues, and his accuracy was shaky at best in college. You don't take that guy unless you think he can improve that stuff.

The preseason stat stuff, though, is off base IMO. It highlights one of the issues with QB rating. Yes, Lance's rating was higher, but that's because defenders dropped three or four easy picks. Factor those in, and his rating plummets. Meanwhile, Darnold gets dinged for two INTs that went right through Ronnie Bell's hands. Take those out of his numbers, and his passer rating shoots up. And rating doesn't take into account sacks caused by the QB holding the ball too long, which both guys appeared to take more than they should.

Lance was bad in the preseason. Period. He showed some promise at the very end, and I think I speak for everyone when I say it's frustrating that we didn't see any more after that to see if he could stack some strong performances. But let's not sugar coat it. He looked paralyzed in the first preseason game. The dude put the ball in harm's way A LOT. You can't do that and expect to win a battle even for the second QB spot.

My view is the decision to move on from him was completely premature, and we've seen Kyle show a real lack of patience before, but I'm not in the meeting rooms. I don't know what stuff that Kyle probably views as completely basic and fundamental to playing the position that Lance seemingly wasn't getting. I still completely disagree with their handling of Lance, and I'm going to be furious if either Purdy doesn't pan out or Lance does. But Lance is not blameless in this. He really didn't perform when given the chance.

[wco81]

Sorry, but this frustrates me.

The organization took the guy with the least amount of game reps of any highly drafted qb in history, and the consensus view, including that of the Niners themselves, was that the key to his development was getting a lot of reps . They then proceeded to give him the least amount of reps of any highly drafted qb in history. Including splitting reps this preseason with Sam ****ing Darnold AND Brandon Allen. And then were reportedly frustrated by his lack of development.

I said after the trade that Shanahan was betting his tenure on this move.

But the way he handled Trey makes you think that maybe he wasn't the primary force for this big trade, maybe just mostly went along with whatever Lynch or some other people in the FO proposed.

Or maybe by October or November, Kyle already liked Purdy more than Trey? Because the play calling when Trey was taking snaps was really bizzare, didn't let him throw on a lot of third downs.

In fact, had Trey run up the middle on the play where he got injured, I believe.

Just baffling, given his play calling reputation.

Or maybe he was trying to sabotage Trey because he felt better about Purdy by then, not to mention having Jimmy?

Just seems like Kyle was never all-in on the trade or in selecting Trey.

He'd be in trouble if they didn't have a 13-win season. Even after that his career record is only 52-46, which is not that great for the kind of money he's making.

Until Purdy became starter and then the CMC trade, the season was heading in the wrong direction.

If the team performs below expectations this season, there will be knives out.

[Big J]

Well the coaching staff didn't see much if any development potential from Lance and neither many other NFL teams

Then why did they trade 3 1st rounders for him?

Is this a serious question? At the time, they expected him to develop. Lots to criticize in their decision-making process and the assumptions that they made. But it was reasonable to expect Lance to do a better job of reading the field when he finally got out there.

Lance did an excellent job - though not quite as good as the raw numbers suggest - of avoiding turnovers in college. In the limited pro reps he's had, he has shown some real weakness in terms of reading the field and understanding what defenders were doing. In less than a full game of preseason reps, he threw probably five or six turnover-worthy passes. That's flat-out bad, regardless of his limited playing time. And that's largely on Lance, in my opinion. It's maybe the biggest reason why he's gone.

Of course he didn’t develop. He only played 5 quarters of regular season ball as the starter. All young guys need time to figure it out. Don’t you remember how long it took Alex Smith to get good?

[CrimsonCrew]

Then why did they trade 3 1st rounders for him?

Is this a serious question? At the time, they expected him to develop. Lots to criticize in their decision-making process and the assumptions that they made. But it was reasonable to expect Lance to do a better job of reading the field when he finally got out there.

Lance did an excellent job - though not quite as good as the raw numbers suggest - of avoiding turnovers in college. In the limited pro reps he's had, he has shown some real weakness in terms of reading the field and understanding what defenders were doing. In less than a full game of preseason reps, he threw probably five or six turnover-worthy passes. That's flat-out bad, regardless of his limited playing time. And that's largely on Lance, in my opinion. It's maybe the biggest reason why he's gone.

Of course he didn’t develop. He only played 5 quarters of regular season ball as the starter. All young guys need time to figure it out. Don’t you remember how long it took Alex Smith to get good?

Yes, and I agree that he didn't get enough of a chance to show his growth. But he also didn't take advantage of the chances he did have.

[Pattersonca65]

Sorry, but this frustrates me.

The organization took the guy with the least amount of game reps of any highly drafted qb in history, and the consensus view, including that of the Niners themselves, was that the key to his development was getting a lot of reps . They then proceeded to give him the least amount of reps of any highly drafted qb in history. Including splitting reps this preseason with Sam ****ing Darnold AND Brandon Allen. And then were reportedly frustrated by his lack of development.

I said after the trade that Shanahan was betting his tenure on this move.

But the way he handled Trey makes you think that maybe he wasn't the primary force for this big trade, maybe just mostly went along with whatever Lynch or some other people in the FO proposed.

Or maybe by October or November, Kyle already liked Purdy more than Trey? Because the play calling when Trey was taking snaps was really bizzare, didn't let him throw on a lot of third downs.

In fact, had Trey run up the middle on the play where he got injured, I believe.

Just baffling, given his play calling reputation.

Or maybe he was trying to sabotage Trey because he felt better about Purdy by then, not to mention having Jimmy?

Just seems like Kyle was never all-in on the trade or in selecting Trey.

He'd be in trouble if they didn't have a 13-win season. Even after that his career record is only 52-46, which is not that great for the kind of money he's making.

Until Purdy became starter and then the CMC trade, the season was heading in the wrong direction.

If the team performs below expectations this season, there will be knives out.

I find it hard to believe Shanahan did not have a say in selecting Lance. Beathard was a Shanahan pick and I would expect he would have a say in any QB selected. The reason Shanahan called running plays on those third down situations is because he did not trust him to throw consistently on those downs. You saw during the preseason how he did on those kinds of passing downs. It went with what was being reported about how the FO felt about Lance's development at the time. If the 49ers were a bottom feeder team the on the job mistakes would not matter but Shanahan could not afford losing games hoping Lance figured it out. I seriously doubt Shanahan was trying to sabotage anyone.

[Big J]

Is this a serious question? At the time, they expected him to develop. Lots to criticize in their decision-making process and the assumptions that they made. But it was reasonable to expect Lance to do a better job of reading the field when he finally got out there.

Lance did an excellent job - though not quite as good as the raw numbers suggest - of avoiding turnovers in college. In the limited pro reps he's had, he has shown some real weakness in terms of reading the field and understanding what defenders were doing. In less than a full game of preseason reps, he threw probably five or six turnover-worthy passes. That's flat-out bad, regardless of his limited playing time. And that's largely on Lance, in my opinion. It's maybe the biggest reason why he's gone.

Of course he didn’t develop. He only played 5 quarters of regular season ball as the starter. All young guys need time to figure it out. Don’t you remember how long it took Alex Smith to get good?

Yes, and I agree that he didn't get enough of a chance to show his growth. But he also didn't take advantage of the chances he did have.

Neither did Alex Smith his first few years, but he eventually got it.

[Pattersonca65]

Is this a serious question? At the time, they expected him to develop. Lots to criticize in their decision-making process and the assumptions that they made. But it was reasonable to expect Lance to do a better job of reading the field when he finally got out there.

Lance did an excellent job - though not quite as good as the raw numbers suggest - of avoiding turnovers in college. In the limited pro reps he's had, he has shown some real weakness in terms of reading the field and understanding what defenders were doing. In less than a full game of preseason reps, he threw probably five or six turnover-worthy passes. That's flat-out bad, regardless of his limited playing time. And that's largely on Lance, in my opinion. It's maybe the biggest reason why he's gone.

Of course he didn’t develop. He only played 5 quarters of regular season ball as the starter. All young guys need time to figure it out. Don’t you remember how long it took Alex Smith to get good?

Yes, and I agree that he didn't get enough of a chance to show his growth. But he also didn't take advantage of the chances he did have.

Shanahan's expectations were probably unrealistic given Lance's lack of experience playing football. Even so, given his rawness and the lower level division talent Lance played in there is good chance he never figures it out at the NFL level.

[Pattersonca65]

Then why did they trade 3 1st rounders for him?

Is this a serious question? At the time, they expected him to develop. Lots to criticize in their decision-making process and the assumptions that they made. But it was reasonable to expect Lance to do a better job of reading the field when he finally got out there.

Lance did an excellent job - though not quite as good as the raw numbers suggest - of avoiding turnovers in college. In the limited pro reps he's had, he has shown some real weakness in terms of reading the field and understanding what defenders were doing. In less than a full game of preseason reps, he threw probably five or six turnover-worthy passes. That's flat-out bad, regardless of his limited playing time. And that's largely on Lance, in my opinion. It's maybe the biggest reason why he's gone.

Of course he didn’t develop. He only played 5 quarters of regular season ball as the starter. All young guys need time to figure it out. Don’t you remember how long it took Alex Smith to get good?

Alex Smith played under some horrible coaches and teams and Alex Smith developed into a mid-tier QB at that. And the FO and Shanahan certainly felt that Lance was not coming along the way they wanted him to. The reports coming out of camp were not good.

[Big J]

Is this a serious question? At the time, they expected him to develop. Lots to criticize in their decision-making process and the assumptions that they made. But it was reasonable to expect Lance to do a better job of reading the field when he finally got out there.

Lance did an excellent job - though not quite as good as the raw numbers suggest - of avoiding turnovers in college. In the limited pro reps he's had, he has shown some real weakness in terms of reading the field and understanding what defenders were doing. In less than a full game of preseason reps, he threw probably five or six turnover-worthy passes. That's flat-out bad, regardless of his limited playing time. And that's largely on Lance, in my opinion. It's maybe the biggest reason why he's gone.

Of course he didn’t develop. He only played 5 quarters of regular season ball as the starter. All young guys need time to figure it out. Don’t you remember how long it took Alex Smith to get good?

Alex Smith played under some horrible coaches and teams and Alex Smith developed into a mid-tier QB at that. And the FO and Shanahan certainly felt that Lance was not coming along the way they wanted him to. The reports coming out of camp were not good.

Who cares. Some guys just take longer to develop. A guy with Lances physical abilities deserves a longer timeline due to his ceiling.

[CrimsonCrew]

Sorry, but this frustrates me.

The organization took the guy with the least amount of game reps of any highly drafted qb in history, and the consensus view, including that of the Niners themselves, was that the key to his development was getting a lot of reps . They then proceeded to give him the least amount of reps of any highly drafted qb in history. Including splitting reps this preseason with Sam ****ing Darnold AND Brandon Allen. And then were reportedly frustrated by his lack of development.

I said after the trade that Shanahan was betting his tenure on this move.

But the way he handled Trey makes you think that maybe he wasn't the primary force for this big trade, maybe just mostly went along with whatever Lynch or some other people in the FO proposed.

Or maybe by October or November, Kyle already liked Purdy more than Trey? Because the play calling when Trey was taking snaps was really bizzare, didn't let him throw on a lot of third downs.

In fact, had Trey run up the middle on the play where he got injured, I believe.

Just baffling, given his play calling reputation.

Or maybe he was trying to sabotage Trey because he felt better about Purdy by then, not to mention having Jimmy?

Just seems like Kyle was never all-in on the trade or in selecting Trey.

He'd be in trouble if they didn't have a 13-win season. Even after that his career record is only 52-46, which is not that great for the kind of money he's making.

Until Purdy became starter and then the CMC trade, the season was heading in the wrong direction.

If the team performs below expectations this season, there will be knives out.

I find it hard to believe Shanahan did not have a say in selecting Lance. Beathard was a Shanahan pick and I would expect he would have a say in any QB selected. The reason Shanahan called running plays on those third down situations is because he did not trust him to throw consistently on those downs. You saw during the preseason how he did on those kinds of passing downs. It went with what was being reported about how the FO felt about Lance's development at the time. If the 49ers were a bottom feeder team the on the job mistakes would not matter but Shanahan could not afford losing games hoping Lance figured it out. I seriously doubt Shanahan was trying to sabotage anyone.

Yeah, if Shanahan wasn't all-in on Lance, he deserves to be fired for letting the pick be made. He's got personnel responsibilities, it's ultimately his decision. Of all positions, it should have been his call.

Having said that, the FO has acknowledged that they traded up thinking Mac Jones would be fine at two, but that they hadn't done due diligence on everyone else. It is possible that Shanahan did the due diligence, realized he didn't like any of the guys, but had to pick someone because they had traded all those picks to go up and take a QB.

Either way, it's a bad look and a complete whiff by Shanahan, Lynch, and Co. And it may cost them their jobs or at least their autonomy if things don't go right over the next couple years.