Trey Lance needs to get on the football field. At least, that's the opinion of fan-favorite Frank Gore, the San Francisco 49ers running back of 10 years.
"We did a lot of moves, traded a lot of picks to get Trey Lance," Gore told Heidi Watney this week on Bovada's Instagram account (h/t TheSFNiners). "When you do that, you've got to get a guy like that on the field."
Gore remains a fan of his former team and follows the 49ers closely. He is well aware of the current quarterback situation in Santa Clara. The team traded away a haul of draft capital to acquire Lance last year but held onto veteran Jimmy Garoppolo. A year later, San Francisco can't find anyone willing to take the ninth-year quarterback off their hands.
Gore feels Garoppolo is a good quarterback but acknowledges that his March 8 shoulder surgery has played a significant role in the team's inability to find a trade partner.
"At that position, quarterback, going to a new team, you want your quarterback to be out there in OTAs (organized team activities) to get the timing, to be out there with the new guys to see what type of balls he can throw, how he is in the huddle," Gore said. "So I think that slowed things up with Jimmy G and why he didn't get traded.
"But I still think Jimmy G is better than a lot of guys out here in the league, though. I can't say what he's going to do, but he's a winner. He's been to the NFC Championship twice. He's been to the Super Bowl. You look at his record when he was with the 49ers—he's a winner. Every time he's on the field, they have success."
Gore also assessed what he's seen from Lance, despite the small sample size of in-game reps.
"I think when you watch him coming out of college, I think he's got talent," Gore said. "I just think he needs more reps. And when he was playing in preseason, I saw that he was doing some good things. I just think when he took that time off, and they let Jimmy G be the guy, then when Jimmy G got hurt, you could tell he kind of went backwards a little bit.
"But he [does] have talent. I just think he needs the reps. I think once Kyle knows what he's really good at because Kyle is one of the greatest play-callers in the league right now. I think Kyle will figure it out [a way] for him to have success."
Is Lance the long-term answer at quarterback for the 49ers? The running back feels it is premature to say one way or another.
"We've got to see," Gore responded. "We've got to wait until he gets on the field to see. ... I can't say if he's the long-term answer right now because I didn't see a lot. But coming out of college, he did have talent, and they traded up a lot to get him."
