The 49ers just drafted Trey Lance third overall, officially starting the countdown clock for how long Jimmy Garoppolo will remain the team’s starter. Lance was considered a somewhat raw prospect due to his limited amount of college experience at North Dakota State, which is why most expect Garoppolo to open the season as the starter. While Garoppolo is the favorite to be under center come Week 1, that doesn’t mean we won’t get to see Lance on the field right away.
The 49ers will try to “sprinkle in Lance the way the Saints have used Taysom Hill in recent seasons,” Matt Barrows of The Athletic believes. Barrows highlights recent comments Kyle Shanahan made on KNBR, when he raved about how Lance’s athleticism could open up the offense.
“It really makes the defense — if you’re in certain formations — honor 11-on-11 football. Because he is that type of threat, not just with his feet but also the way he runs the ball. He’s very natural at it. He can protect himself. He’s got the size to handle a couple of things. He’s always going to be a threat at any time,” the 49ers head coach said. Even if he’s not throwing the bulk of the passes, it’ll be fun to see what kind of packages Shanahan can come up with for Lance off the bench.
Here’s more from around the league on a quiet Sunday offseason night:
- We heard over the weekend that Bradley Chubb underwent an ankle procedure, which understandably caused some concern. Broncos fans were surely having flashbacks to when the young stud pass-rusher missed most of the 2019 season with a torn ACL. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear to be anything serious. The surgery was a scope to remove a bone spur, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets, noting that it’s “very common.” Rapsheet adds he’ll be in a “boot for a couple weeks and will be fully ready for camp.” The fifth overall pick of the 2018 draft is coming off a Pro Bowl season where he had 7.5 sacks in 14 games.
- The Patriots have a 17-year streak going of at least one undrafted rookie making their opening day roster. That streak looks like it may be coming to an end, as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com writes. Reiss points out the team has only signed one UDFA so far, kicker Quinn Nordin from Michigan. The Pats have three kickers on the roster and Nordin will need to beat out both Nick Folk and Roberto Aguayo if New England is going to make it 18 years in a row.
As a non-San Francisco guy, can someone please tell me how it is that Jimmy has fallen so out of favor??
I’m a SF fan, everyone here loves him, not sure why he’s constantly bashed by the media.
In his 3 years as a starter for SF he’s had 1 full healthy year with the other two seasons being washed once he got hurt, not to mention that one healthy year ended in a poor SB performance that cost them the Lombardi. Now they at least have a backup they can be excited about this year and then have a dual threat QB on a rookie contract for another 3 years plus a team option which can help them invest their cap space elsewhere as they continue to contend for their 6th SB in franchise history.
Weak pass blocking lost that super bowl. As did a mistake prone secondary. For about 3 quarters he was looking to be an MVP favorite. Announcer Aikman right before halftime said “Garappollo is on fire”. If you believe he lost that game due to a “poor” performance you 1) conveniently forgot how he played and 2) don’t know what parts contribute to a Super Bowl win. And this, after 2nd pick of Mahomes, and leading 30-20, with about under 10 minutes left, Mostert runs for 5 yards. 2nd and 5 and 2 passes follow–both with crap pass blocking. 50 secs after the interception of Mahomes niners punted. Watch the game again, by yourself and without outside erroneous influence. Garappollo could have done better at the end, but that loss was due to a teambreakdown.
Strong points. I would also throw in there that Jimmy takes a huge blow to the head and likely got a concussion in that game.
And Chris Jones beat up the Oline.
Hurt too much. Can’t rely on him being healthy and if your starting QB is hurt every year you can’t realistically expect to contend
So the Colts wouldn’t have welcomed Luck back last year or the year before?
Luck had started 55 of 57 possible games before his first long absence, 15 of 16 games the next season, and then after his second long absence, 16 of 16 games. Jimmy G had the healthy season between the two major injuries, but didn’t have that three-plus years of starts early on to give them hope that the injuries were the anomaly, and not the year of good health.
And Luck’s a 4x Pro Bowler.
He’s pretty good. But has that bone head INT once in a while. Every other game really. Missed the Sanders touchdown in the superbowl and that’s not the only down field pass he’s taken. Just the one everyone remembers. I’d rather have him all year. Better o line. D healthy to start the year. D gets you the ball back quicker and you can keep a rhythm on O. 13-3 is tough to do in this league. He’s one wrecked year removed from it.
People seem to shy away from blaming Shanahan from making weird playcalls and instead blame Garappolo for losing steam. Garappolo had one truly bad throw-that miss to Sanders-but most of the rest of the game he played very well. San Fran refuses to admit that they could do better with a high end player at the skill positions-running back or wide receiver. I mean, Mostert is okay, like most of their backs, but after a defense figures out the blocking scheme he is not good enough to make his own holes.
This doesn’t mean that they are utterly bereft of good players, just that they don’t have a top ten player at either position, and don’t think they really need one. Garappolo is good, maybe not great, but certainly good enough to do his job. Shanahan, in my opinion, needs to get a truly high end talent instead of just thinking that he’s so smart that he can just put scheme everyone by just looking for players who fit his system. There has to be some adjustment to a truly talented player somewhere, not just look for the complementary pieces.
If if they did bring in some UDFA none would have made it they don’t have a lot of need at other positions and the only spot I could see a player like making would be kicker and I believe this kid Quinn Nordin could make this team
I mean anymore young guys