The biggest San Francisco 49ers storyline this offseason has surrounded the quarterback situation. They have a veteran who has helped guide the team to a Super Bowl in Jimmy Garoppolo. However, the quarterback has missed significant playing time due to injuries in two of the last three seasons. The coaching staff may not fully trust that Garoppolo can eventually become the elite talent that head coach Kyle Shanahan covets.
The 49ers believe Trey Lance could be that quarterback. So they traded a significant amount of draft capital in March to move up to draft Lance with the No. 3 overall pick a month later. That created a big storyline for the media. San Francisco is rolling with Garoppolo to start the season. However, his successor will be on the sidelines awaiting his chance to take the reins from the veteran.
Former NFL wide receiver and current NFL Network analyst Michael Irvin had some thoughts on the quarterback situation in Santa Clara, sharing them on his podcast, The Michael Irvin Podcast.
Irvin likes some of the things he's seen from Lance during the preseason. However, as we've all seen, the rookie quarterback, at times, has also looked like ... well ... a rookie quarterback. He's made mistakes, which is to be expected.
Irvin also acknowledges that the 49ers aren't putting much on game film right now, and Lance isn't necessarily running the plays he might be asked to run in-season. General manager John Lynch acknowledged that this past week.
"We haven't shown a lot in the preseason, as well, in terms of the things we can do with both Trey and Jimmy," Lynch said on KNBR. "But that's not only for us. That's league-wide. You really don't know, going into the first couple of games, what you're going to see."
That also means Lance isn't seeing the defenses he might face during the regular season. As a result, the mistakes could increase when he does face more complex schemes.
"So, what I think Kyle Shanahan is going to do is play it like they played it last year in Miami with the Dolphins, with Tua [Tagovailoa]," Irvin said. "I think Garoppolo definitely gets the start because Garoppolo has been there. Garoppolo knows -- and you know you can get to a Super Bowl with Garoppolo.
"And this is a key too: You know you've got a great defense. They've got Bosa coming back. They've got a great defense, so they said we've got to play this out now, and we can insert Trey, kick Trey some packages."
Irvin doesn't just look back to recent Dolphins history for a blueprint on how the 49ers might handle their quarterback situation. He looks a lot further back — to 49ers history — for another example. Irvin goes back to the early years of Bill Walsh's head coaching tenure and what the iconic mastermind did with a guy named Joe Montana.
"Because remember, the first thing Bill Walsh said with Joe Montana, he said, 'I wanted to make sure early on, that he has early success, so I put him in certain games, and I gave him certain plays to make sure that he had early success to build his confidence,'" Irvin shared. "He knew he had a talent, so now he had to make sure he built the confidence up, and that talent would take over.
"Joe became one of the greatest to ever play the game. And Kyle Shanahan knows this story, and he's about to replay history right before your eyes."
Of course, Garoppolo suffering yet another injury could speed up the timeline for Lance to take over. Irvin believes Shanahan will not hesitate to replace the veteran quickly should he find himself injured for the third season in four years.
You can listen to the entire conversation below. The portion about the 49ers begins at about the 26:40 mark.