Trey Lance is practicing this week. He's been limited over the last two days but progressing as the San Francisco 49ers' rookie quarterback returns from a knee sprain suffered in Week 5.
General manager John Lynch joined KNBR this afternoon and was asked about Lance's recovery and his development. The rookie was inactive for this past weekend's rain-soaked loss against the Indianapolis Colts but could be back on the sidelines on Sunday against the Chicago Bears.
Jimmy Garoppolo will start the game, though. It doesn't sound like there is a quarterback change on the horizon. However, it's comforting that Lance has been looking good in his recovery and could be available should the 49ers need him.
"First of all, with the injuries, he's had two very good days," Lynch said on the Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks show. "We'll see, after you come back from an injury, you always want to see the next day. Well, the good news is he showed up today, and after working pretty hard on Wednesday's practice, he was good out here today. So we got to make sure the same thing's the case tomorrow, but that's encouraging.
"So, I think from a health standpoint, a lot of people wanted to know why versus Indy, why he wasn't in there. Well, he wasn't healthy to be out there. So it was important that he got out on the practice field. And then it's been a little while since he's played, since that last Arizona game when he got hurt."
Has Lance's development been set back by the injury or the lack of playing time? The rookie has been sitting behind Garoppolo all season, and with the 49ers on a four-game losing streak, some wonder if Lance could offer the spark needed to turn things around. After all, Lance is the quarterback of the future. The team traded a haul of future draft capital to move up to No. 3 overall to select him.
"But in terms of his development, Trey's doing good," Lynch said. "... I think there's going to be a time this year that Trey plays. Right now, Jimmy's our guy, and Kyle was very upfront [about that]. But we do have a lot of belief in Jimmy. People want to always know why. Well, we think Jimmy has played well at times this year.
"Certainly, last week was not his best effort. I will say we don't make excuses, but there were some tough conditions to throw the ball, but at times, he did. At times, it wasn't good enough. But we do have a lot of confidence in Jimmy. We think he gives us the best chance, but we're encouraged that Trey is getting healthy, that we may have him. That decision hasn't been made if he'll be up this week, but like I said, he's had two very good days, and we'll see where that goes.
"But yes, we're very encouraged by the way he's developing, and I feel really good about his immediate future and the future for this franchise because I think he's everything we expect him to be and more."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.