Did San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback Trey Lance regress after a strong start to training camp?
"A week into training camp, coaches believed Lance had grasped Shanahan's intricate offense so quickly that they might be able to accelerate the plan and start him right away," Michael Silver reported this week via Bally Sports. "Then he leveled off, lost confidence and clearly became a less appealing option than Garoppolo — who had his best training camp as a Niner, by far— though Shanahan and his assistants were excited about the prospect of using a 'Trey Lance Package' to keep teams off balance."
The report makes it sound like the coaches lost some faith in the rookie after his impressive start to training camp, especially if that start had them thinking that Lance could be a viable option as the 49ers' Week 1 starter.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters before today's practice. He was asked about the validity of Silver's report.
"Yeah, he's gone up, he's gone down, just like every player in here," Shanahan said of Lance. "So, when somebody has a report that he had a really good first week of training camp, he did have a really good first week of training camp. He also had a good fourth week, a good third week. I can't remember exactly how it goes.
"So there's probably some accuracy to that report, which I think would be accurate with every player on our team."
Shanahan has been hesitant to put Lance on the football field for extended playing time. That was partially explained by the coach's confidence in Jimmy Garoppolo. Some of it was not wanting to throw the rookie into a meaningful game before he was properly prepared. Lance's knee sprain from his Week 5 start against the Arizona Cardinals may have also contributed to his lack of on-field action.
"The [Week 8] Chicago game, I didn't really plan on doing much of [using Lance in packages] because you're just coming off an injury," Shanahan said. "... Going into the Arizona game [in Week 9], I thought we would do some, but the way the game went, we just never got into a rhythm offensively. You guys could see that. I didn't feel like, at the time, to mix him in and change more stuff up."
The 49ers will host the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night at Levi's Stadium.