What did the GOAT think of Trey Lance’s 2022 debut?
Hall of Famer Jerry Rice joined 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Monday to share his impressions of the second-year 49ers quarterback and his effort in Sunday’s 19-10 loss to the Chicago Bears.
Though Lance’s final stat line wasn’t pretty – 13-of-28 for 164 yards, no touchdowns and an interception, with 13 rushes for 54 yards – Rice said Trey did enough for the 49ers to win.
“He would love to have that interception back,” Rice told hosts Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky. “He missed a couple throws. The one he overthrew the tight end. But I thought he played OK. I feel like he did enough to win that football game. You gotta look at what happened with the Chicago Bears. I feel like they won that game in the last five minutes.”
As Rice noted, Lance missed out on a possible 32-yard touchdown in the second quarter when he completely sailed one over the head of tight end Tyler Kroft. While Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields was able to capitalize on a couple of busted coverages by the 49ers in the second half and throw two touchdowns, the 49ers were shut out in the second half. The Bears made it 19-10 with Khalil Herbert’s touchdown with 7:21 remaining.
Though some on social media were quick to make pleas for Jimmy Garoppolo – sarcastic or not – Rice said that sort of talk is premature.
“Hold up, hold up, man,” Rice said. “It’s the first game of the season guys. Come on now. I understand competition. Ain’t nothing wrong with competition. But I think Trey he has the maturity where he’s gonna deal with this. He knows that this is his team and he knows that it’s up to him to lose this quarterback position. I think he’s only gonna get better. Look at some of the throws he made.”
While the overall body of work left more to be desired, Lance definitely had some eye-opening throws Sunday. Akash Anavarathan of Niners Nation shared some of Lance’s best plays from Week 1.
Ups and downs are to be expected from Lance, but you can definitely see flashes of the 22-year-old developing. Rice is preaching patience and eager to see if he’ll be the next in the canon of great 49ers quarterbacks.
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