The San Francisco 49ers gave away a lot to land Trey Lance in the 2021 NFL Draft. Despite limited game action, he was one of the highest-ranked QB prospects. However, it was clear that he was still a work in progress.
Kyle Shanahan featured Lance early in the season. He was out there taking snaps on the red zone, subbing in for Jimmy Garoppolo every now and then, up to the point where we thought he'd eventually take over.
That didn't happen and Lance was somewhat underwhelming when he was asked to be on the field. Apparently, he was limited by a finger injury for most of the season, but he's now finally back to full strength.
NFL News: Trey Lance Blames Injured Finger For Rookie Season Struggles
“I kind of dealt with my finger throughout the season, so for me, it was kind of getting that back, and getting healthy, and feeling back to myself,” Lance told 49ersWebzone.com. “Like, towards the end of the season, I wasn’t the best version of myself overall. It was a long season, a long pre-draft process, of me not being in school."
"Everyone says it’s going to be, but you don’t really realize it until it happens," Lance added. "And I think the finger, for me, was the biggest thing just as far as throwing the ball. I kind of had to learn to throw the ball differently without kind of using my pointer finger, I guess because of just where it was at throughout the year. But now, I feel like I’m in a great spot, health-wise, and throwing the ball wall, and feeling really good.”
The Niners still plan to trade Garoppolo and give Lance the keys to the offense, so they better hope he's ready to go and take a step forward in his sophomore year, as he has yet to prove why scouts were so high on him to begin with.
