Even before the start of the NFL season, some San Francisco 49ers fans wanted Trey Lance to take over Jimmy Garoppolo. Needless to say, that might have been a big mistake, given how inexperienced the first-round rookie is.
But, as it happened throughout the preseason, coach Kyle Shanahan showed no hesitation to give Lance some big snaps in the regular season. In fact, he even scored the first touchdown of the year for them.
And now that Garoppolo is set to miss several weeks with a calf injury, the prophecy could finally be fulfilled. Trey Lance will be QB1 for the time being and maybe, he could even take over the job for good.
Jimmy Garoppolo To Miss Several Weeks With A Calf Injury: Is It Time For A Trey Lance Takeover?
Even though the 49ers couldn’t get the job done at home vs. the Seahawks, Lance was still fairly impressive. He completed 9 of 18 passes for 157 yards and 2 touchdowns, rushing 7 times for an additional 41 yards.
That’s why coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t seem to be too concerned or hurried to bring Garoppolo back, as he recently said that he trusts his prized rookie to lead the way going forward:
“He got hurt sometime in the first half. He said he got stepped on,” Shanahan told NFL.com. “He played for a while with it. We didn’t think it was that bad at the time. (…) About a minute before halftime he was trying to get it going, but he just couldn’t push off it.”
“Hopefully Jimmy’s better and (the injury is) not as bad as we think. But Trey is here for a reason. We want to give him a little time. We want him to be fully ready, but you don’t always have that luxury,” Shanahan said, as per Tim Kawakami of The Athletic.
Lance is an exciting project and maybe he’s ahead of schedule. But he barely played at all last year and doesn’t have a lot of college experience, and he’s coming off a small program in North Dakota State. But hey, we’ve seen crazier things happen, and he’s looked pretty solid thus far.
