SANTA CLARA — Adios, Trey.
Just two years ago, the 49ers used a boatload of draft capital to move up to the No. 3 overall pick in a quarterback-heavy first round of the NFL Draft. They thought they were drafting the future face of their franchise when Trey Lance walked across the stage in Cleveland and posed for a photo with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
About 28 months later, the Niners cut ties with Lance, trading him to the Dallas Cowboys on Friday, just hours before San Francisco’s final preseason matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers.
In essence, the 49ers traded three first-rounders and a third-round pick for a lone fourth-round pick. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch peeled back the curtain on the Trey Lance trade situation following Friday’s 23-12 loss to the Chargers, and it seemed like Wednesday was the day that changed everything for the franchise.
Shanahan went to bed Tuesday night with the gut feeling that veteran Sam Darnold had beaten out Lance for the QB2 job behind Brock Purdy, and told him the news the next day.
“I knew it,” Shanahan said. “I thought it would take longer (to make the decision). I wanted to go through this game, but I knew it. I think a lot of guys knew it. I think he had an idea. It was more about my relationship with Trey. I’m in meetings with him every day and I’m on the field with him every day. I could get a sense that he was starting to feel that we felt that way. It was the truth and I didn’t wanna BS him.”
According to Lynch, Lance shouldered the responsibility of his lackluster tenure with the 49ers during their initial conversation, but also showed a sense of relief knowing he’d get a fresh start.
“Love the kid,” Lynch said. “Kyle and I, when we broke the news to him today, saw him light up a little bit. He loves it here. He was very appreciative of the opportunity. Typical Trey, he apologized to us, but there was nothing for him to apologize for. We’re happy that we got a spot for him and the Cowboys came up big.”
About 90 minutes after that initial meeting, Lance started up another conversation and asked the 49ers if they could find him an opportunity to be a QB2, with Tuesday’s 53-man cutdown day looming on the horizon. He knew his time to grow with the 49ers was likely over.
“He took a little bit of time to think about it, but then he came back and said he’d like to find another spot if we can,” Shanahan said. “That’s when we started looking into it – his agent, us. That came to fruition today.”
Shanahan said that Darnold had emerged as the team’s preferred QB2 over the past couple weeks of practice as he got time to settle into the complex offense.
“Just the whole body of work,” Shanahan said of Darnold. “He got better as it went. Thought it was tight for a little bit, but just over the past couple of weeks and stuff, started to separate himself each day. Just the more comfortable he got, the more consistent he got. I think it was pretty apparent for all of us.”
Shanahan also looked back at the entire course of Lance’s career and how it never panned out, due to a mix of injuries and inexperience. The Niners knew Trey would be a developmental project when he got drafted out of North Dakota State, as he played in just 19 games of college football at the FCS level due to the impact of the pandemic.
Shanahan said the 49ers tried to take advantage of their mid-first-round status with the No. 12 pick, as he had confidence that the team would be drafting toward the end of the first round the next couple seasons. In the two drafts since, the Niners would have had the No. 29 overall pick after losing in the NFC Championship twice.
“We thought we had a really good team and we didn’t think we’d have a chance again to get close to that top area to take a quarterback in the Top 10. We went into it realizing there was a risk, but we thought we weren’t gonna pick that high again for a couple of years and we would never have a chance to move up from 12 to 3. We tried to move up to a number of spots before that, but 3 was the first one that would do it. We looked at everything between 12 and 3.”
Alas, Lance was stuck behind veteran Jimmy Garoppolo, who had earned the full trust of the 49ers brass by that point. The preseason finger injury Lance suffered and subsequent midseason knee injury only hurt his chances to grow.
Lance got the keys to the first-team offense and Garoppolo was moved to QB2 for 2022, but Trey broke his foot/ankle early in the Week 2 matchup and essentially put the kibosh on his time with San Francisco.
“We knew we would commit to him the next year, which we did,” Shanahan said. “We knew he wasn’t fully ready in every aspect, but we knew he had a skillset that we could put something together to give him a chance to compete and grow with a good team as he developed as a full quarterback.”
Once Purdy emerged as a longshot franchise quarterback down the stretch last season, it was all over for Lance.
“This thing’s not an exact science, but when you put that much into a player (Lance), it usually is tough to rebound from,” Lynch said. “Fortunately, we’ve been able to grow this team to make this team better. We were very fortunate to have Brock become what he’s become. He’s gotta continue to do it, but the early returns are good.”
Looking back on the situation, Shanahan took responsibility for the way it all played out for Lance.
“I always feel like I let Trey down,” Shanahan said. “I believe in Trey and I believed in him before we took him. I’m responsible for that. … Hell yeah we’d love to keep him until it works out, but that clock ran out here.”
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