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Why Baldy feels the 49ers should give Trey Lance more first-team snaps vs. Raiders
Aug 24, 2021 at 2:54 PM
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The San Francisco 49ers are preparing to play their final preseason game, a Sunday matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. This past weekend, Jimmy Garoppolo received one drive's worth of work against the Los Angeles Chargers. Of course, that drive lasted 15 plays.
Trey Lance got the majority of the work after that, playing well into the third quarter. The rookie received more than double, 34, the snaps compared to Garoppolo. Some still wonder if there is a quarterback competition there despite the team's unwavering plan to have Garoppolo start Week 1 against the Detroit Lions.
Of course, head coach Kyle Shanahan hasn't officially declared Garoppolo the Week 1 starter,
stating on Monday that there is no advantage to doing so right now.
NFL Media analyst Brian Baldinger isn't buying into the talk that there is a quarterback competition in Santa Clara, no matter how enticing the sales pitch.
"That doesn't look like a competition to me. It looks like it's Jimmy's job," Baldinger said this morning on 95.7 The Game.
With no quarterback competition taking place or even brewing, and Garoppolo likely to be the starter, Baldinger wonders if the 49ers should give Lance more work with the first-team offense on Sunday. The plan right now is for the starters, which we have to assume includes Garoppolo, to receive most of the work against the Raiders to prepare for the regular-season opener.
"If Jimmy is their guy, if they're so sold—and I'm not saying he isn't—but if they're so sold on him, then give this final preseason game, give the reps to Trey," Baldinger said. "Let him play with the No. 1 offense, and just see what happens.
"First of all, he needs the work anyway. He needs the experience. Every single play that he sees kind of helps his development, and you're going to need two (quarterbacks). I mean, that's why they drafted him with the third (overall) pick. You're going to need two quarterbacks. The history tells you you're going to need two.
"Now, it would be great if Jimmy went out there and played the whole season, and you just put Trey in bubble wrap. Although, I don't think that's a good thing, and I don't think that's going to happen. But you need two, so you might as well start developing two."
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