Trey Lance has had an up-and-down run on the San Francisco 49ers depth chart over the last year, and now one top NFL insider isn’t even sure if he will be in the league in five years.
When the San Francisco 49ers traded several picks to move up and make Lance the third selection overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, there was a belief the North Dakota State product would eventually overtake Jimmy Garoppolo as the starting QB and be the next face of the franchise.
Since he showed some signs of his potential during moments of relief in his rookie season, the organization thrust him into the starting role in 2022 and had big hopes. Unfortunately, Lance did not look impressive in the preseason or during his two starts before his season ended from an ankle injury. That’s why it wasn’t particularly difficult for Brock Purdy and his late-season success to be good enough to wrestle the starting role away from the former first-round pick.
Yet, Lance didn’t enter the season as the undisputed choice as the backup either and is in a fight for the job with veteran Sam Darnold. Considering his age (23), and the belief in the league that he still has upside, there has been a great deal of speculation over the last couple of weeks that the best option for the organization is to trade Lance.
San Francisco 49ers record (2022): 13-4, first place in NFC West
In a Monday conversation with the “49ers Talk” podcast, veteran NFL insider Peter King seemed to make the case that he isn’t totally sure Trey Lance will be able to hang on very long with another team even if he is traded before the start of the new season next month.
- Trey Lance stats (Career): 8 games, 797 passing yards, 5 TD, 3 INT, 84.5 passer rating
“What’s his next team, if he does go, and even depending on — five years from now, is Trey Lance even going to be playing football? That’s a question I would have because we just haven’t seen enough to know anything about what he can do.”
– Peter King
It will be very interesting to see how things play out with the San Francisco 49ers’ final preseason game this Friday and key roster decisions to make before and after.
Due to injuries during his college career, Lance only made 19 starts during three seasons at North Dakota State.