Technically, the jury is still out on 49ers quarterback Trey Lance.
However, San Francisco’s decision to trade up to draft him #3 overall in 2021 is looking more and more disastrous by the second.
The jump up to the Miami Dolphins third spot cost them three-first round picks – an enormously massive price tag.
Seemingly every opportunity Lance gets to play, he either gets hurt or shows an alarming inability to execute – And execution and “staying on script” is never more important than it is in Kyle Shanahan’s offense.
Shanahan confirmed that unless something catastrophic happens, Brock Purdy will remain the 49ers starting quarterback. It’s looking more and more likely that Sam Darnold will serve as the main backup.
That leaves Lance in virtual no-man’s land.
In other words, the decision to draft him #3 overall will likely go down as one of the worst draft picks in NFL history.
Adding insult to injury is certainly the fact that the 49ers gave up SO MUCH to trade up to pick him.
Count Marcus Spears of ESPN as someone who agrees wholeheartedly with that statement.
“Look, they’ve got a terrible situation on their hands with Trey Lance,” Spears said on ESPN’s First Take. “This may go down as one of the worst trades in the draft in the history of the NFL.”
“The fortunate part is Kyle Shanahan has done such a phenomenal job of getting this team ready to play and being so creative offensively that it hasn’t shown in the win-loss column. But you lost a lot by going up and getting Trey Lance.”
"This may go down as one of the worst trades in the draft in the history of the NFL."
—@mspears96 on Trey Lance and the 49ers 😳 pic.twitter.com/ZTyzjwqUGw
— First Take (@FirstTake) August 14, 2023
The long-standing rumor is that San Francisco was planning to draft Mac Jones before Lance somehow won them over during the draft process.
The truly remarkable aspect to all of this is the fact that the 49ers are so well-built that they should be able to just sweep the Lance mistake under the rug.
Usually committing such a colossal mistake (and giving up so much draft capital in the process) sets a franchise back at least a few years.
However, with Shanahan and General Manager John Lynch running the show, San Francisco won’t miss a beat.
(It also helps that “Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy fell into their laps – but that doesn’t take away the credit they deserve for drafting him.)
Maybe Lance is just a (very) late bloomer and ends up turning his career around at some point.
But it’s not looking good.
What do you think of Lance?
It’s true he hasn’t played a whole lot of football the past few years. It’s also true that Shanahan’s system is one of the most complicated to master, especially for a young quarterback.
But do you think he has the ability to ever be more than a backup quarterback in the NFL?