Trey Lance Looks To Silence Doubters As Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers Look On

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance will make the third start of his young career when the second-year player leads his team into Chicago to take on the Bears Sunday afternoon.

This isn’t like the two starts last season. There’s more pressure. Lance has been anointed the starting quarterback. He was a stopgap starter for Jimmy Garoppolo in those two games as a rookie. He’s now the face of the franchise and has been handed the keys to the kingdom.

The one overriding backdrop to this season opener is the fact that Garoppolo surprisingly returned on a restructured deal after it looked like the Super Bowl quarterback was as good as gone.

This has led to a narrative that Lance has a short leash. It’s a belief that includes Garoppolo taking over in short order should the 22-year-old signal caller struggle out of the gate.

For what it’s worth, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has remained consistent in his public support of Lance as the starter while making it clear that he believes the media has no idea what it’s talking about.

“It sounds like a fan talking and they have zero idea of what they’re talking about. Not to insult a fan or anything,” Shanahan told KNBR on Friday when asked about the national media saying Garoppolo only returned because San Francisco’s brass doesn’t believe in Lance.

This is a story that’s been more than a year in the making. Once San Francisco exhausted two first-round picks and change to move up to No. 3 in the 2021 NFL Draft for Lance, it became clear that Garoppolo would soon be unseated. The move came just over a calendar year after Garoppolo “led” San Francisco to an appearance in the Super Bowl.

Less than eight months after Garoppolo and his 49ers held a 10-point lead against the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game, the veteran will be holding a clipboard once the season kicks off in Windy City on Sunday.

Shanahan wants to spin this in a certain direction. The media wants to drive the story. It’s a perfect storm with Lance himself being the unintended victim of the back and forth.

“Guys, this is Trey’s first year starting for us. We were letting go a $24 million starting quarterback to do that. We got him back for a backup price,” Shanahan said on Friday. “I don’t think that has to do with not having faith in your starter.”

Indeed, Garoppolo was slated to count north of $26 million against the cap in 2022. His base is now just $6.5 million with certain incentives following the restructure.

Despite the positive on-field dynamic (San Francisco having the best backup in the league), Shanahan and Co. had to know that bringing Garoppolo back would create some knee-jerk reactions from the masses. It’s also going to lead to more pressure being thrown in the direction of Lance. That’s human nature, and anyone who doesn’t see this is being bamboozled by the 49ers’ spin.

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Trey Lance On Not Being Named Team Captain

In what has been yet another talking point, Lance was not named one of the 49ers’ six team captains heading into Week 1. Typically, the starting quarterback is a captain. Fellow 2021 draft mates Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Mac Jones and Justin Fields earned those titles.

Lance’s situation is a bit different in that he was not a full-time starting quarterback as a rookie. Those other four first-round picks were. He talked about not being named team captain recently while keeping a level head.

“Obviously that’s a goal of mine but I don’t think you can look at any six of those guys and say ‘this guy’s a bozo,’” Lance told reporters earlier this week. “All have played football at a very high level. Situations are different. I’m excited. I voted for every single one of those guys so I think each and every one of them deserves it.”

Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, George Kittle, Jimmie Ward, Trent Williams and Fred Warner were all named team captains. Lance finished seventh in team voting.

A championship-caliber team naming six captains who have been important in building the foundation over a 22-year-old second-year player? Imagine that!

Outside of this simply being another way of click-baiting, I am not sure how much this really matters. Shanahan spoke on that, too. “The whole captain vote (criticism) is kind of a joke to me,” Shanahan said. “Bosa finally got enough votes to get up to No. 6, and look at those six people in front of Trey.”

Make No Mistake About It, Trey Lance Is Under Pressure

Outside of the headlines leading up to Week 1, it would be foolish to believe that Lance is not under pressure making his third career start.

A product of North Dakota State, Lance has thrown all of 389 regular-season passes since his high school days in Minnesota. He’s leading a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations and has a quarterback in Garoppolo who has helped the 49ers to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl appearance in the past three seasons backing him up.

Anyone of a sound mind would conclude that Lance is facing more pressure than any of the other 2021 first-round quarterbacks, including Sunday’s opponent, Justin Fields.

Lance shouldn’t shy away from it. He should welcome the pressure. It was already going to exist regardless of Garoppolo’s presence on the roster.

“It’s the most difficult, it’s beyond. It’s not otherworldly, because you can do it, but it is a nearly impossible job. Let’s be honest about it, and it’s been proven by the number of people who have been able to do it effectively,” Franchise legend Steve Young on the pressure that comes with being a 49ers starting quarterback.

Young faced that pressure when he took over for the great Joe Montana. Jeff Garcia felt the same once he was forced to replace Young. More recently, Colin Kaepernick’s early run replacing Alex Smith was a prime example of this.

Lance needs to embrace this and run with it. There’s no looking back now. He’s the San Francisco’ 49ers starting quarterback. It is going to lead to pressure. Just ask Garoppolo.

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Jimmy Garoppolo Lurking In The Background

Regardless of what Shanahan wants us to believe publicly, there’s going to be somewhat of a short leash given to Lance. It shouldn’t be any other way given San Francisco’s championship-caliber roster and Garoppolo’s success leading the team over the past few seasons.

Let’s put this into perspective for a second. Despite his obvious limitations, Garoppolo owns a 31-14 record as San Francisco’s starter since joining the team midway through the 2017 season. All other quarterbacks during the Shanahan era boast an 8-28 record as a starter. If we were to go back to the first season of the post-Jim Harbaugh era in 2015, each San Francisco starter not named Garoppolo has posted a 15-43 record.

If Lance were to struggle with the nuances of leading an NFL offense out of the gate, there’s absolutely no reason to believe he won’t be benched in favor of Garoppolo. San Francisco has worked too hard to build this roster. The players have, too.

This isn’t to say that’s going to happen. It remains an unlikely scenario given Lance’s talent level and the grouping he has around him on offense. Unlike the other second-year quarterbacks heading into the 2022 campaign, he’s in a great situation.

“He’s fully ready for the opportunity,” 49ers All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner said of Lance recently. “Who wouldn’t want to be the quarterback of that offense with the weapons, the mind of Kyle and the support of your whole entire team? It’s the perfect opportunity for him.”

It starts Sunday afternoon inside the famed Soldier Field. All eyes will be on Lance, including the 49ers’ brass and Garoppolo himself looking on from the sideline.