When Kyle Shanahan first reported that Trey Lance suffered a small fracture in his finger, the coach said he was optimistic that the San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback would return to practice next week, potentially as early as Monday.
That remains the hope.
Lance was on the practice field today in Santa Clara with his teammates. He was very limited, though, as shown in the video below by David Lombardi of The Athletic.
Here is how Trey Lance is going through warmups with his chipped finger: He's doing all drills at 49ers practice but simply tossing the football away after the snap unlike Garoppolo and Sudfeld pic.twitter.com/1xCQiyVYLk
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) September 1, 2021
Lance wore a wrap around his index finger on his throwing hand and won't participate in team drills until he is fully healed. The 49ers aren't taking any chances with the health of their 21-year-old rookie and the No. 3 overall pick.
So what was Lance able to do during practice today?
"Mainly listen," Shanahan said. "I mean, he can do everything, physically, but we're not going to put him in there taking snaps or doing hand-offs or anything that would have someone hit his finger. So he couldn't do anything with anyone out there, but he's on the side, doing footwork stuff, things like that. But nothing with the ball or with other people yet."
General manager John Lynch told reporters today that a Monday return for Lance is optimistic but not out of the question. The 49ers plan to do what is best for the quarterback.
"I think [his recover is] trending in the right direction," Lynch said. "Some of the swelling is coming down, and Monday is kind of the optimistic look at it. I can promise you this: We'll do right by Trey and have him in a good place before he's back out there."
Shanahan is also optimistic about Lance's recovery while remaining cautious about it.
"I mean, any time you've got a small chip, it could linger," Shanahan shared. "I hope it doesn't. I'm hoping he's back there next Monday. That's the goal. He seems positive about it. But we've got to be smart with it too.
"Sometimes when it's a real little thing like that, it's hard to believe it's still hurt, but we've got to make sure that he doesn't go out there and have a setback right away on it too."
