Trey Lance certainly looked the part when he hit the field for practices this past weekend. The San Francisco 49ers rookie was the only quarterback on hand as 23 players participated in a three-day rookie minicamp. Jimmy Garoppolo and most of the rest of the team arrived this week and will begin organized team activities next week.
Garoppolo is penciled in as the Week 1 starter. The plan is for Garoppolo to remain the starter because head coach Kyle Shanahan probably doesn't want to hand over such a talented roster — perhaps a championship-caliber one — to a rookie. Lance was the No. 3 overall pick. While the two quarterbacks selected ahead of him will certainly have an opportunity to hit the field first, Lance has the unique luxury of being able to sit and learn.
Fans are excited to see what Lance brings to Shanahan's creative offense. The young athletic quarterback looked right at home at the team's SAP Performance Facility in Santa Clara. We'll get a better idea of what he brings when the rest of his new teammates join him.
There is a chance Lance picks up the offense quicker than expected. Evaluators have raved about the rookie's ability to absorb information quickly. Maybe he ends up pushing Garoppolo and creating an intriguing training camp competition.
One fan asked Matt Barrows of The Athletic if having such different quarterbacks complicates things during training camp, assuming that each requires different offenses. That probably isn't the case.
"Will Lance run more than Garoppolo does? Yes," Barrows responded in the mailbag column. "Will there be designed runs put in place for Lance, especially in short-yardage situations or around the goal line? Almost assuredly. Will Lance's favorite plays be the same as Garoppolo's? Probably not."
Yes, the two quarterbacks are different. Lance doesn't fit the mold of Garoppolo or former 49ers quarterbacks Nick Mullens or C.J. Beathard. However, this is still Shanahan's offense, and the coach feels that Lance fits into it, not that some drastic change is needed to adapt to the rookie.
"[T]he meat and potatoes of Kyle Shanahan's offense is going to remain the same: A lot of running the football, a lot of play action, a lot of misdirection," Barrows continued. "The plan is that when Lance is ready to take over, he'll run all of those things but with a bigger arm, more mobility as well as the threat to gain yards with his legs. In sum: He'll run the same offense but he should be able to do more in the same offense."
Lance has not played in a game since October 3, 2020. It was his only action in the past 495 days. The quarterback is itching to get out there but understands that he has to make sure he is ready.
"I've got a lot to learn for sure," Lance told us last week. "But I also have great people around me, great coaches, and obviously great guys in the quarterback room. So just looking forward to, like I said, learning from them as much as I possibly can."
