The Trey Lance thread

[CrimsonCrew]

Having said that, I think you hit the nail on the head otherwise. I was getting very excited watching any of the three guys - though particularly Lance and Fields - who were possibilities at third because of their ability to open up the field as compared to Garoppolo. Jimmy can only consistently threaten an area of the field that is about 20 yards deep and 30 yards wide. He rarely throws outside the numbers. He throws deep even less frequently, and he throws deep and outside maybe two or three times a season. He doesn't threaten with his legs. He's alright throwing on the run on designed rollouts, but he's not one to improvise.

The biggest benefit a guy like Lance gives the offense is the ability to attack anywhere. It will create so much more stress on defenses, who now have to legitimately worry about getting beaten deep, focus on double moves, etc. To say nothing of the running threat Lance poses. When he's ready, it should make for some very fun offense.

[CrimsonCrew]

Good, quick look at Garoppolo's and Lance's mechanics side-by-side:

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Lance's look tighter than when he was playing in college, almost as fast as Garoppolo's, but he is still dropping the ball a bit more than I'd like to see.

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

TREY LANCE
QB, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

Trey Lance completed 5-of-14 passes for 128 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions in the 49ers' preseason game against the Chiefs.

Lance's biggest highlight was an 80-yard touchdown to Trent Sherfield. His first three incompletions were drops, so the stats don't tell the whole story in that regard. That goes both ways though, as he threw two turnover-worthy passes and took multiple sacks. Still, the third overall pick showed off what made him such a mesmerizing prospect, and he's an immediate fantasy QB1 once he gets the job.

Aug 14, 2021, 11:03 PM ET

[Jikkle]

Grant Cohn can have some weird and dumb takes but he does have a point with Lance that in this game he really didn't do what he would do in an actual regular season game with no zone reads, bootlegs, and etc. So what we saw of Lance was on a part of what he'll do in the offense.

No where Cohn gets eye rollingly stupid is the takes that Shanahan was trying to make Lance look bad or he was running the Mac Jones offense because Lance wasn't his guy etc etc etc.

It was the 1st preseason game which are always vanilla for most teams and Shanahan has 0 reason to show anything and help the Lions week 1 if Lance is the starter. It's obvious from practice reports that Shanahan has plays specifically made with Lance in mind so I just don't buy this narrative that he still wants Mac Jones especially since so far what we've seen of Mac Jones is what we expected which is probably just a smarter Jimmy G.

[CrimsonCrew]

Grant Cohn can have some weird and dumb takes but he does have a point with Lance that in this game he really didn't do what he would do in an actual regular season game with no zone reads, bootlegs, and etc. So what we saw of Lance was on a part of what he'll do in the offense.

No where Cohn gets eye rollingly stupid is the takes that Shanahan was trying to make Lance look bad or he was running the Mac Jones offense because Lance wasn't his guy etc etc etc.

It was the 1st preseason game which are always vanilla for most teams and Shanahan has 0 reason to show anything and help the Lions week 1 if Lance is the starter. It's obvious from practice reports that Shanahan has plays specifically made with Lance in mind so I just don't buy this narrative that he still wants Mac Jones especially since so far what we've seen of Mac Jones is what we expected which is probably just a smarter Jimmy G.

Yeah, I think Shanahan wants to keep that offense to himself until it's unveiled in a game that counts. Cohn is right that this offense is different from what we'll run with Lance, but wrong in attacking Shanahan for it. It's the smart play. Don't give teams any more chance to scout it than you have to.

[CrimsonCrew]

Interesting pair of stats from PFF:

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[Jikkle]

Just some random tibdits I thought were interesting.

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Read on Twitter

[Jikkle]

Interesting pair of stats from PFF:

Read on Twitter

This will obviously be the thing to watch with Lance because he's obviously capable of throwing accurately but can he do it consistently.

So far I've been pleased with how much he has improved from where he started to where he's at now and given his work ethic and his desire to be great I'm bullish on him continuing to improve but nothing certain until he actually does it.

The other thing that sorta ties into this is he needs to develop something other than the fastball. Kaepernick never was able to so hopefully Lance won't end up like Kap in that regard but it's another element of his game that I feel will grow with experience.

[CrimsonCrew]

I don't think Lance just has a fastball, a la Kaepernick. He can improve on his touch, but the ball he threw to Richie James on the out that James dropped wasn't just a bullet. It had a nice arc to it and was very catchable.

The other big question I had about Lance coming out of college - the first being his accuracy - was how he would play under pressure. We just didn't see much of it in college. Now, granted that was also true of Wilson and Jones, and Fields noticeably struggled under pressure at times, but that's one of the things that really makes or breaks a QB in the NFL. Young Alex Smith (maybe perpetual Alex Smith) is a good example of this. He had the skills, the intelligence, etc., but he just couldn't execute with bodies flying around him. That's one of the toughest things about playing QB, and few guys have it, but it's one of the things that can really set a guy apart. Jury is still very much out on Lance, and probably will be for years still.

[CrimsonCrew]

Just some random tibdits I thought were interesting.

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Fields continuing his crazy amount of time to throw. He does do the Russell Wilson act pretty well, in terms of running around in teh backfield and then launching it downfield. I don't want that to be a big part of Lance's game, and I know Shanahan doesn't, but I would like to see a little more escapability out of him.

[Jikkle]

Watch on YouTube

[Pattersonca65]

I don't think Lance just has a fastball, a la Kaepernick. He can improve on his touch, but the ball he threw to Richie James on the out that James dropped wasn't just a bullet. It had a nice arc to it and was very catchable.

The other big question I had about Lance coming out of college - the first being his accuracy - was how he would play under pressure. We just didn't see much of it in college. Now, granted that was also true of Wilson and Jones, and Fields noticeably struggled under pressure at times, but that's one of the things that really makes or breaks a QB in the NFL. Young Alex Smith (maybe perpetual Alex Smith) is a good example of this. He had the skills, the intelligence, etc., but he just couldn't execute with bodies flying around him. That's one of the toughest things about playing QB, and few guys have it, but it's one of the things that can really set a guy apart. Jury is still very much out on Lance, and probably will be for years still.

Lance was inexperienced coming into the NFL and hasn't played in over a year. Now he is trying to learn a complicated offense and adjust to the speed and complexity of NFL defenses. That is where he is most likely going to struggle right now and why I question his ability to start right away.

[Pattersonca65]

Just some random tibdits I thought were interesting.

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Fields continuing his crazy amount of time to throw. He does do the Russell Wilson act pretty well, in terms of running around in teh backfield and then launching it downfield. I don't want that to be a big part of Lance's game, and I know Shanahan doesn't, but I would like to see a little more escapability out of him.

I am not concerned about Lance's escapability right now. I think it will be there and he has that ability. Shanahan wants his QBs to learn to play from the pocket and not rely on their legs so much and Lance needs to learn that.

[CrimsonCrew]

I don't think Lance just has a fastball, a la Kaepernick. He can improve on his touch, but the ball he threw to Richie James on the out that James dropped wasn't just a bullet. It had a nice arc to it and was very catchable.

The other big question I had about Lance coming out of college - the first being his accuracy - was how he would play under pressure. We just didn't see much of it in college. Now, granted that was also true of Wilson and Jones, and Fields noticeably struggled under pressure at times, but that's one of the things that really makes or breaks a QB in the NFL. Young Alex Smith (maybe perpetual Alex Smith) is a good example of this. He had the skills, the intelligence, etc., but he just couldn't execute with bodies flying around him. That's one of the toughest things about playing QB, and few guys have it, but it's one of the things that can really set a guy apart. Jury is still very much out on Lance, and probably will be for years still.

Lance was inexperienced coming into the NFL and hasn't played in over a year. Now he is trying to learn a complicated offense and adjust to the speed and complexity of NFL defenses. That is where he is most likely going to struggle right now and why I question his ability to start right away.

Sure, I'm not putting unrealistic expectations on him. This is something that takes even the best guys years to figure out. But it is one of the questions we weren't really able to answer based on his college tape.

The good news is that Shanahan's offense - once mastered - provides pretty defined reads, and his first and second options are open more often than not, so for the short term, it's really a matter of getting that down.

[Jikkle]

I don't think Lance just has a fastball, a la Kaepernick. He can improve on his touch, but the ball he threw to Richie James on the out that James dropped wasn't just a bullet. It had a nice arc to it and was very catchable.

The other big question I had about Lance coming out of college - the first being his accuracy - was how he would play under pressure. We just didn't see much of it in college. Now, granted that was also true of Wilson and Jones, and Fields noticeably struggled under pressure at times, but that's one of the things that really makes or breaks a QB in the NFL. Young Alex Smith (maybe perpetual Alex Smith) is a good example of this. He had the skills, the intelligence, etc., but he just couldn't execute with bodies flying around him. That's one of the toughest things about playing QB, and few guys have it, but it's one of the things that can really set a guy apart. Jury is still very much out on Lance, and probably will be for years still.

Just from the limited action he had in preseason he strikes me as a guy who'll be fine with pressure, well at least handle it on a level as other top tier QBs.

He could've been better under pressure but his mistakes didn't seem like they were from an inability to process what was in front of him or from panicking but mainly inexperience.

Spagnuolo did him a favor by not just throwing simple and vanilla defenses at him but giving him some difficult looks to contend with.

I get the impression he's the kind of guy that makes mistakes, recognizes those mistakes, and works to fix them. The more different and difficult things that are thrown at him the better off he'll be.

[generaldreedle]

I’ve been pleased by Kyle’s comments about Lance’s ability to grasp the playbook and how he worked in the 40 days. He hasn’t played in so long I think expecting him to start soon is pretty unrealistic. Grant Cohn seems to think that either Kyle is lying about when Lance will start or that he knows better than Kyle about Lance’s readiness to start. But of course Grant’s a coward and won’t commit to one take or the other because then people could attack it as being stupid

[Jikkle]

I’ve been pleased by Kyle’s comments about Lance’s ability to grasp the playbook and how he worked in the 40 days. He hasn’t played in so long I think expecting him to start soon is pretty unrealistic. Grant Cohn seems to think that either Kyle is lying about when Lance will start or that he knows better than Kyle about Lance’s readiness to start. But of course Grant’s a coward and won’t commit to one take or the other because then people could attack it as being stupid

If Lance starts it'll be because the impact he has on the running game will be greater than the difference in passing between him and Jimmy.

The major problem Jimmy has is he's a turnover machine and I'd say he'd have a much firmer grasp on starting week 1 if that wasn't the case. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say Lance would throw less INTs than Jimmy would so Jimmy doesn't even have that working for him.

That's what makes this a pretty difficult decision for Shanahan because you could make a good case to sit or start Lance week 1 and neither case would really be wrong.

I'd say this upcoming game is going to swing the momentum to start or sit Lance one way or another. I think if Lance doesn't look any better than he did last week he'll most likely sit week 1 but if he looks more comfortable and appears to have made some strides from the first game it could swing to him starting week 1.

[Samurai]

Lance seems to have taken a clear step backward so far against the Chargers.

[thesack12]

Lance seems to have taken a clear step backward so far against the Chargers.

Yeah, not looking good tonight.

The Int was a high throw, but Sanu probably should have caught it so I will give him some leeway on that one. Same with Jimmy's Int, it was a high throw as well and Aiyuk should have caught that one.

But, Lance probably should of had a 2nd pick, throw was like 3 yards behind the receiver and went right through the defenders hands. That was a really bad throw.

On that last possession, he held on to the ball WAY too long, even when he Sherfield streaking across the middle of the field wide open. Trey held on to the ball, then lackidaisically holding the ball with one hand while trying to escape the pocket, he's lucky he didn't fumble. Then still didn't get rid of the ball, and ate the sack.

Hopefully, he settles down for the rest of the game

[thesack12]

There's Trey, very pretty throw downfield to a wide open Sherfield