Trey Lance was impressive on Tuesday. It may have been his best practice of training camp. The San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback completed all 13 of his passes during team drills before his final throw, intended for wide receiver Richie James, fell incomplete. Lance even had a beautiful deep touchdown throw to Trent Sherfield that wowed teammates, the media, and fans. However, most of his passes on the day were shorter throws.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan insists that the team's quarterback plans haven't changed. A few practices aren't going to change that. Jimmy Garoppolo is the starter, and Lance will serve as his backup.
Shanahan was asked if Lance's outing on Tuesday was the type of performance that might convince him that the No. 3 overall pick deserves some work with the first-team offense.
"No," Shanahan responded. "I don't really look at it like that. I mean, I thought he had a decent day. I thought he did good with his reps, not perfect. But we're just evaluating everybody right now."
Shanahan had a straightforward response when asked what Lance needs to do to prove that he is ready to take over the starting job.
"When I think he gives us the best chance to win," Shanahan replied.
While Shanahan loves what Lance's mobility potentially brings to the 49ers offense, that alone isn't enough to push the coach into throwing the versatile quarterback into the mix right away.
"There's a lot of things you can do if the defense isn't accounting for a quarterback," Shanahan said. "That's one of the bonuses to a guy who is a threat with his legs. But you've got to get good in all the other areas for that to continue, which is throwing the ball, making the right reads, and protecting the ball."
Lance did receive one rep with the first-team offense during Tuesday's practice. It was his first of training camp. That got social media buzzing. However, it lasted just one play before the rookie returned to working with the twos. Shanahan was asked about the reasoning behind Lance's one snap with the ones.
"We have seven-day installs," the coach explained. "A certain play that went in today that we wanted all O-lines to get reps with, and we're only going to do that play with Trey."
Garoppolo isn't overly concerned about Lance potentially impressing the coaches enough to be considered for the starting job. Instead, the veteran is focused on his own play and the offense as a whole.
"Training camp, you're worried about a lot of things," Garoppolo told reporters on Tuesday. "You can't start worrying about that stuff. I think, offensively, we've been playing well. I'm pretty happy with where we're at. Trey, he's been making some plays. Like all of it, we've all got a long way to go. We're just getting started here in camp, and we'll keep this thing rolling."
