Steve Young on 49ers: ‘You have a Super Bowl-ready team with Trey Lance’

Steve Young is making his opinion about the San Francisco 49ers' quarterback situation clear: Trey Lance needs to play immediately.

While the team is content with Jimmy Garoppolo starting Week 1 and beyond, allowing Lance to sit and learn behind the veteran, Young feels the rookie could benefit from being thrown into the lineup right away.

"The transition is so much easier than it ever was or ever could be for these young college players coming into the pros, get them on the field, more than ever," Young recently said on ESPN (h/t to Jake Montero of KNBR). "If it's even a close call at all, go with these dynamic young players. They can get you all those yards ... and they'll grow into the job.

"... You have a Super Bowl-ready team with Trey Lance. This team is going to the Super Bowl. This is a guy that they gave up -- five times in history that teams have given up three first-round draft choices ever. How could you speak more loudly that you don't want Jimmy Garoppolo than to do that."

The 49ers like Garoppolo. He is a locker room favorite, and the coaching staff, at least publicly, has expressed confidence in the veteran, indicating that he remains the best option to win games right now.

However, as Young stated, San Francisco did give up a lot to acquire Lance, Garoppolo's eventual successor. The ESPN analyst feels that if Garoppolo plays and performs well, it may create an awkward situation in the locker room if the team wants to make the transition to Lance. And Young knows a thing or two about quarterback controversies, having been part of one himself with the Niners.

"My point is that John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan took the offseason," Young continued, "and said to themselves, 'What do we want to do with all these draft picks at quarterback? Well, let's pile them all into the future because we do not want the guy we have.' You could not have spoken more clearly or loudly.

"So, all I'm saying is, 'I heard you.' And now, Trey Lance is here. And barring something unforeseen, he needs to be on that field. Jimmy has the locker room. [If] Jimmy has a great start to the season, it just gets more complicated, more difficult, because you've got this guy that you've just told everyone 'We don't want you, we've got this guy.' You couldn't speak any more loudly.

"Look, I get that. No question that reason would say, 'You've been to the Super Bowl, [Garoppolo should] keep playing, and take us there again.' But the brain trust has said something completely opposite."