HEADLINES

Trey Lance

49ers To Start Jimmy Garoppolo In Week 7

October 22nd, 2021 at 3:52pm CST by Sam Robinson

Jimmy Garoppolo will return to a starting role for the 49ers this week. The fifth-year 49er is off the team’s injury report and good to go for Sunday night’s game against the Colts.

Trey Lance will not suit up due to the knee sprain he sustained in Week 5. San Francisco’s bye week allowed Garoppolo to recover in time to become the rare incumbent to recapture his job from a rookie-year first-rounder. Though these situations usually end with the younger talent taking over for good, Kyle Shanahan said Garoppolo would keep his job when healthy.

A high ankle sprain felled Garoppolo midway through last season, and he did not return. This year’s calf ailment proved to be milder, and Garoppolo will come back after missing just one game. The 30-year-old veteran — after being mentioned in trades during the offseason and viewed as a lame duck after the 49ers traded two future first-rounders for Lance — will have an interesting opportunity to submit a case he remains the best option for the 49ers to reach their 2021 ceiling.

Garoppolo is unlikely to have his top offensive lineman available, however. The 49ers declared Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams doubtful for Week 7 due to ankle and elbow injuries.

Jimmy Garoppolo Will Remain 49ers’ Starting QB When Healthy

October 10th, 2021 at 10:17am CST by Rory Parks

Trey Lance will get the start at quarterback for the 49ers today in place of the injured Jimmy Garoppolo, but as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com writes, Garoppolo will get his job back as soon as he is healthy enough. The Niners hope that will happen when they return from their Week 6 bye to take on the Colts in Week 7.

Although San Francisco obviously selected Lance with the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft with the hopes that he would be the long-term solution at quarterback, head coach Kyle Shanahan has made it clear ever since Lance was drafted that Garoppolo would remain the club’s starter in the near-term, and perhaps even through the 2022 season (though that would certainly qualify as a surprise).

When recently asked about the possibility of getting Lance more involved in the offense, Shanahan said, “There’s not a quarterback battle right now. We’re going with [Garoppolo] who I think is playing very well. I’m happy that he is so Trey is not thrown into any situations he has to do too early.”

At the time Shanahan made that statement, the 49ers had just lost their first game of the season, a narrow defeat to the Packers that dropped them to 2-1 on the season. But they followed that up with a loss to the Seahawks last week, a game in which Garoppolo sustained the calf injury that limited him to one half of play and that is keeping him on the sidelines this week. Though he threw a TD pass on the Niners’ first drive of the Seattle contest, Garoppolo struggled to get anything going during the rest of his time on the field.

For the season, the soon-to-be 30-year-old has completed 66.1% of his passes for five TDs and two interceptions, good for a 96.2 QB rating. After replacing Garoppolo against the Seahawks, Lance threw a 76-yard TD strike to Deebo Samuel, but he was unable to cross midfield again until there was just 1:20 left in the game. He ultimately completed nine of 18 passes for 157 yards and two scores.

Of course, if the North Dakota State product impresses today, Shanahan could change his tune in a hurry. But if Lance should struggle, then look for Garoppolo to be reinserted into the starting lineup in two weeks’ time.

49ers To Start Trey Lance In Week 5

October 8th, 2021 at 3:32pm CST by Sam Robinson

Jimmy Garoppolo‘s calf injury will keep him out of the 49ers’ game against the Cardinals. Trey Lance will make his debut as an NFL starter, Kyle Shanahan confirmed Friday.

This was the likely course of action for the 49ers, but the team had kept the door open for Garoppolo to come back after missing just a half. Instead, Lance will take the reins in a key NFC West matchup. Whether this will be a long-term transition or an injury-replacement stay will hinge on how Lance fares, though the runway appears clear for the atypical quarterback prospect.

The 49ers traded up nine spots to land Lance at No. 3, sacrificing two future first-round picks to do so. The team was more closely linked to Mac Jones than Lance going into the draft, and a recent report indicated the 49ers’ Jones interest spurred the trade. But the team decided on Lance, a one-year starter from Division I-FCS North Dakota State.

Lance, 21, has looked expectedly raw as a passer but has assisted the 49ers as a backup, throwing a touchdown pass in Week 1 and impressing as a runner early on. It should be expected Shanahan’s game plan will feature Lance’s dual-threat skill set in Arizona, after the talented rookie took over for Garoppolo against Seattle last week. Lance completed 9 of 18 passes against the Seahawks and rushed for 41 yards during his first half of steady NFL action.

Lance is unlikely to have the benefit of targeting one of the NFL’s best tight ends in his first start. The 49ers have listed George Kittle as doubtful to go with a calf injury. Kittle suffered the calf malady against the Packers but suited up for Week 4. After not practicing this week, the Pro Bowler does not have a good chance of playing Sunday.

Latest On 49ers Quarterbacks

September 29th, 2021 at 6:49pm CST by Ben Levine

The 49ers (especially head coach Kyle Shanahan) have continually said that there isn’t a QB competition in San Francisco. Shanhan reiterated that point today when asked about the coaching staff’s willingness to get rookie Trey Lance more involved in the offense.

[RELATED: Latest On Trey Lance, 49ers QB “Competition”]

“There’s not a quarterback battle right now,” the coach said (via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner on Twitter). “We’re going with our starting quarterback who I think is playing very well. I’m happy that he is so Trey is not thrown into any situations he has to do too early.”

Shanahan’s starter is Jimmy Garoppolo, who has completed 67.4-percent of his passes for 760 yards and four touchdowns (vs. only one interception) for the 2-1 49ers. Lance, the third-overall pick in this year’s draft, has seen the field for only seven total snaps. However, two of those snaps have resulted in touchdowns, including a crucial score during his team’s loss to the Packers the other night.

Considering the draft capital that the organization invested in Lance, the North Dakota State product will surely take over at center eventually. However, until Garoppolo does something to lose his role, the rookie will remain the second QB on the depth chart.

“Trey’s our backup quarterback,” Shanahan said (via Yahoo’s Jason Owens). “This isn’t the preseason. We’re not just going back and forth all the time. Trey goes in for specific plays or things we want to do.”

49ers Were Concerned Patriots Would Jump Them To Select Mac Jones

September 12th, 2021 at 12:29pm CST by Rory Parks

The 49ers became the talk of the pre-draft portion of the offseason when they engineered a trade up to the No. 3 overall pick. It was immediately clear that San Francisco was going to draft a QB with that selection, and for a time, the rumor was that the club had its eye on Alabama passer Mac Jones. Ultimately, of course, the team drafted North Dakota State signal-caller Trey Lance.

However, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports, one of the reasons the Niners made the deal was because they believed the Patriots had identified Jones as their quarterback of the future and wanted to beat New England to the punch. That suggests that the 49ers did initially favor Jones — who was seen as an ideal fit for Shanahan’s scheme — and were only later persuaded to take Lance. The Niners said all along that they viewed multiple passers as legitimate candidates for the No. 3 pick, so blocking the Pats and assuring themselves of the chance to select Jones was not the only motivation for the deal, but it was certainly a perk.

As Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston tweets, there may have been another benefit to the trade as it relates to New England. Even if Lance was the 49ers’ target all along, floating the possibility that they were going to nab Jones might have prompted the Pats to swing a deal for Jimmy Garoppolo.

In the end, Jones fell to the Patriots at No. 15 overall, and he will be under center for the club’s regular season opener against the Dolphins today. Meanwhile, Garoppolo is still starting for the 49ers, and Lance will operate as his backup.

That arrangement may not last long. As Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes, Shanahan has already installed plays for Lance, who will see the field in certain packages right away. And one source says Lance will assume more and more responsibilities as the early part of the season goes on while Garoppolo showcases his talents for teams that might be interested in trading for him prior to the November 2 deadline.

49ers Sign Trey Lance

July 28th, 2021 at 10:06am CST by Zachary Links

It’s a done deal. On Wednesday, No. 3 overall draft pick Trey Lance formally inked his rookie contract with the 49ers. 

Per the terms of his slot, the quarterback will earn $34.1MM over the next four years. And, as a first-rounder, the Niners will reserve the right to tack on an additional season via the fifth-year option. Lance’s deal — completed just before the 49ers’ Wednesday morning practice — leaves Jets’ No. 2 overall pick Zach Wilson as the last unsigned first-round pick.

The future is bright for Lance, but he’ll open the year on the bench. Earlier this week, Kyle Shanahan made it clear that Jimmy Garoppolo is still his QB1.

“Trey’s had seven practices with us, and I haven’t seen him in 40 days, so I’m not thinking about that right now,” Shanahan said. “There’s no open competition right now in terms of equal reps with the same group…Jimmy is coming in as the one, and Trey is coming in as the two.”

Of course, that’ll likely be Lance’s job come 2022. Niners GM John Lynch is saying all the right things, but he didn’t mortgage all that draft ammo for a professional clipboard holder.

Latest On Trey Lance, 49ers QB “Competition”

July 27th, 2021 at 8:48pm CST by Ben Levine

There isn’t a QB competition in San Francisco. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said there is no open competition for the starting gig, as veteran Jimmy Garoppolo is the definitive starter while rookie Trey Lance will serve as the backup (via NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo via Twitter).

“Trey’s had seven practices with us, and I haven’t seen him in 40 days, so I’m not thinking about that right now,” Shanahan said (via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area). “There’s no open competition right now in terms of equal reps with the same group…Jimmy is coming in as the one, and Trey is coming in as the two.”

This isn’t the first time the organization has expressed this sentiment. In fact, we heard earlier this year that the team was willing to roll with Garoppolo for the next two years before inevitably turning to Lance, the No. 3 pick in this year’s draft. To the 49ers credit, they seem to be sticking to their story, but it remains to be seen if they’ll stick with the game plan.

Few first-round quarterbacks since the Packers’ Brett Favre-to-Aaron Rodgers transition have failed to take over starting jobs as rookies, let alone second-year passers. In every non-Rodgers case, a first-round pick having failed to seize the job by Year 2 signaled a bust. Garoppolo sat for three-plus seasons behind Tom Brady, but the Patriots selected him in the 2014 second round. Garoppolo piloted the 49ers to Super Bowl LIV, throwing 27 touchdown passes in 2019, but has been unreliable from a health standpoint since coming to San Francisco. This led to the team trading up for Lance.

Meanwhile, Lance has yet to ink his rookie contract, but GM John Lynch believes a deal will be completed sooner than later.

“We’ve never had a holdout but it always seems to go down to the wire,” Lynch said (via Garafolo on Twitter). “It’s important he is here.”

Kyle Shanahan Discusses Decision To Take Trey Lance Over Mac Jones

July 8th, 2021 at 10:23pm CST by Ben Levine

Even up until the day of the 2021 Draft, it was still uncertain which QB the 49ers would take with the No. 3 pick. Our final report on the subject indicated that the decision was down to the team’s eventual pick, Trey Lance, and Alabama’s Mac Jones, who ended up going to the Patriots at No. 15.

During a recent appearance on the “Flying Coach” podcast, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan seemed to indicate that the team did seriously consider Jones before ultimately choosing Lance.

“I think either one would have been a good decision,” Shanahan said (h/t Yahoo’s Josh Schrock). “Like, you’re not moving up if you don’t feel good about both of those. And if it had just been one then we probably would have said no — well, we probably wouldn’t have said that because it’s still risky. But we really — either one of those players would have been a great pick, in my opinion. And the third guy with Justin [Fields], he would have been a great pick. It’s just what direction do you want to go.

“There’s so many things that go into it and you’ve got to make that decision. But I didn’t blame people at all for thinking it would be Mac Jones. Because Mac Jones deserves that. He’s that good of a player and he put it on tape for a whole year, and everyone did want to relate me to Kirk [Cousins] because that’s the only guy that I was openly going for as a free agent, so people talk about him. But Trey brought another element. And it doesn’t mean he’s better or worse. It just means he brought another element that over the course of us studying it really intrigued us, and that’s a direction I would love to go and have always wanted to go.

“But the guy has got to be able to do it all, and Trey sold us that he could and that’s why I’m excited to work with him and it’s up to us to get him to do it.”

After acquiring the No. 3 pick from the Dolphins for No. 12 and a pair of future firsts, the 49ers never really showed their hand, but it sounds like the team was sincerely exploring all of their potential options. As Shanahan noted, the 49ers seemed to value Lance’s diverse skill set, something that was especially evident during a 2019 collegiate season where the quarterback ran for 1,100 yards. For comparison’s sake, Jones had 42 rushing yards throughout his entire college career.

While Lance will eventually be under center for his new team, it sounds like the team is going to give Jimmy Garoppolo every opportunity to win the starting gig.

Latest On Unsigned First-Round Rookies

June 29th, 2021 at 9:53pm CST by Ben Levine

After the Falcons inked first-round tight end Kyle Pitts to his rookie deal earlier today, there are eight first-round rookies who remain unsigned:

1) Jacksonville Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence, QB (Clemson)
2) New York Jets: Zach Wilson, QB (BYU)
3) San Francisco 49ers (from Texans via Dolphins): Trey Lance, QB (North Dakota State)
13) Los Angeles Chargers: Rashawn Slater, OT (Northwestern)
14) New York Jets (from Vikings): Alijah Vera-Tucker, OL (USC)
15) New England Patriots: Mac Jones, QB (Alabama)
25) Jacksonville Jaguars (from Rams): Travis Etienne, RB (Clemson)
26) Cleveland Browns: Greg Newsome II, CB (Northwestern)

This isn’t a huge cause for concern, as first-round contracts are pretty standard and by-the-book. However, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has an explanation for why at least a handful of these players still haven’t put pen to paper. According to the reporter (via Twitter), there are still some “wrinkles to work out” for the notable quarterback deals. This sentiment would presumably apply to each of the top-three picks, and it could even be referring to Patriots first-round quarterback Mac Jones.

There’s a number of minor details that agents could be pushing for, including signing bonus terms or any other contract language that goes beyond the standard, boilerplate options. On the other side, teams could be pushing for some type of offset language, meaning the organization would get some financial flexibility if the player for some reason doesn’t finish their rookie contract with the team.

When it comes to the quarterbacks, most of the agents are probably waiting to see how Lawrence’s deal unfolds in Jacksonville. Alternatively, if Bill Belichick and the Patriots (somehow) give in to any demands from Jones camp, you can bet the top-three QBs would argue for similar benefits. While there are a number of reasons why the other, non-QB players have yet to sign, one could guess that the two offensive lineman may be pushing for similar terms (Vera-Tucker could also simply be waiting for his teammate to sign their contract). Etienne is in a unique position as one of only two first-round running backs (or, like Vera-Tucker, he could be waiting for his teammate), while Newsome recently fired his agent.

The teams and the players will want the contracts settled prior to training camp in late-July, but that still leaves a few weeks for negotiating.

Ten First-Round Picks Remain Unsigned

June 20th, 2021 at 2:49pm CST by Zachary Links

This year, NFL teams have been quick to tackle their rookie paperwork. Still, there are a decent number of unsigned draft picks remaining, including ten of this year’s first-rounders: 

In a sense, this is a sign that things are back to normal in football following the pandemic. For example, by June 12th of 2019, 22 first-round picks had put pen to paper, with 222 rookies inked on the whole. However, around this time last year, there were just two first-round picks officially in the fold – Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and Panthers defensive lineman Derrick Brown.

Offset language and similar minutia could be holding these ten deals up, but there’s no reason to panic. In all likelihood, these rookie contracts will be squared away before the start of training camp this summer.

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