This week, head coach Kyle Shanahan said he had noticed a significant improvement in rookie quarterback Trey Lance over the past month. That's good news because the San Francisco 49ers may need to start Lance this weekend against the Houston Texans with starter Jimmy Garoppolo dealing with a thumb injury and being unable to practice.
The 49ers remain in the playoff hunt. If the season ended today, they would be the sixth seed in the NFC. However, that could change if the team doesn't finish these next two weeks strongly. It may be Lance, not Garoppolo, leading San Francisco into the postseason.
Shanahan knew it would take some time for the rookie quarterback, whose last and only full season came in 2019 with North Dakota State, to acclimate to the NFL.
"I would say it probably started happening around Week 4, 5, 6," Shanahan told KNBR's Marcus Thompson, Kerry Crowley, and Adam Copeland on Friday morning. "Like, once you started doing it a few weeks and see it takes a while for rookies to really understand what the NFL is about. They're just not totally used to it. You tell them and stuff, and they're very eager, they're listening, but they've got to go through it.
"I was like, 'Hey, you're going to run the scout team. You're going to run this offense this week. You're going to do this next week.' I think once you get going and you get a couple of different offenses, and you start to realize, 'Alright, I'm not out there just trying to make the team. I'm out there trying to really develop myself but also trying to give these guys a certain look.'
"For a while, Trey wants to go out there and perform. So if someone's not open, he's not going to throw it. He's not trying to throw a pick. He's going to try to go to a checkdown. If it's not there, he's going to try to scramble and go. And then the defense doesn't get the looks that they totally need."
Fred Warner revealed this week that, at one point, he had to pull Lance aside and explain that it was OK for him to make mistakes during practice on the scout team. It would make him a better player in the long run. The competitor in Lance didn't want to make any mistakes.
Warner said, "So I had to kind of pull him to the side and be like, 'Hey, Trey, listen. This is your time to make mistakes and to try to fit balls into tight areas, kind of just make it hard for yourself, go out there and just see what you can do. Because out here [on the practice field], it doesn't matter. You're not trying to win a game. You're trying to get better as a player.'"
Lance did that, and things turned around for the 21-year-old quarterback. Now, he may be more prepared to start than he was in Week 5 against the Arizona Cardinals.
"You get someone like Fred just to say, 'Hey, we need those looks,'" Shanahan continued. "And you go up and tell him, 'Hey, if you throw a couple of picks on scout team, that's alright, as long as you learn from them. But you've got to go work your way through some stuff and feel it.'
"And I think just watching him week after week, where he can go out there and try somebody's offense where a quarterback never leaves the pocket, and he's always trying to make every throw. Then you've got some weeks where he's playing a guy who's not going to throw it unless a guy is really open because if he's not really open, that quarterback that week is going to tuck it and run it.
"I think that's one of the cool things about Trey. He's got the skill set that he can give the defense both looks each week, where sometimes, our quarterback, if they don't have those skills, they can try to give them those looks, but it's not quite as realistic."
On Sunday, we may learn just how much Lance has progressed since that last start on October 10. It may be enough to help the 49ers finish the season on a winning streak and surge into the postseason.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.
