The performance of quarterback Trey Lance has been a popular topic of conversation over the first few days of 49ers training camp, but defensive end Nick Bosa thinks the pieces are in place for Lance to succeed as long as he avoids big mistakes.
Lance and the other 49ers quarterbacks have thrown their share of interceptions over the past two practices, with Lance completing just 3-of-10 passes on Friday. Lance was encouraged about how the offense bounced back on Thursday, then told CBS Sports he was looking for the same thing on Friday, saying, "I'm kind of more worried, at this point, about how we respond. I thought it was a little bit sloppy today, for sure, on my end, but we're going to keep getting better."
Bosa and the defense have been responsible for some of the mistakes of the offense, but they'll be on Lance's side once the games start to count. For that reason, Bosa thinks Lance and the 49ers will be fine if Lance avoids costly mistakes on gameday.
"Our mindset is always the same as a defense, but I think he's in probably the best position he could be in as a first-year quarterback, with a defense like us and a good O-Line and a bunch of weapons -- (Brandon) Aiyuk, Deebo (Samuel) and George (Kittle), and everybody else," Bosa said. "So he's got all the help; he just needs to -- I mean, I'm not going to give him advice like I'm the QB coach -- but I think if he doesn't make big mistakes, we're going to be in good shape."
The biggest strength on defense comes up front with Bosa and the other linemen, which could be as good of a group the 49ers have had in recent memory.
"Extremely deep," Bosa said. "I think in '19 we obviously had a lot of stars, and last year we had a great year. But just the depth of starting caliber players is something I haven't seen yet with this team. And I think this secondary is playing as good as I've seen as well, which is going to make our job much easier."
Lance's practice performances will almost certainly continue to be the biggest storyline coming out of 49ers training camp, but neither he nor head coach Kyle Shanahan seem overly concerned at this point. Shanahan agreed on Friday that the previous day's practice was a positive despite the turnovers because his quarterbacks were playing without fear of mistakes, which is what he wants to see at this stage. He'd also would likely agree with Bosa about the rest of the team's ability to help Lance, as he said Friday he "probably" felt the roster was in the best place it's been at this point in camp of any 49ers team he's coached.
"Probably. I've probably said that before too," Shanahan said. "You usually do get there after OTAs and you're looking at stuff. You don't trick yourself, but you almost always feel that way as a coach. But when I look at our team and some of the good rosters we've had going in, I thought we had a lot of inexperience at wideout. I think that's kind of changed. I think our wideouts have been here now. I think we've got a real solid group -- probably as good of a group we've had since we've been here. I think we really improved out secondary in the offseason, just getting (Charvarius) Ward, having E-Man (Emmanuel Moseley) healthy, how good he looks right now, hopefully getting JV (Jason Verrett) back."
"The fact we had to play some rookies last year who weren't quite ready, but they still survived and got that experience, which will help this year and give us more depth than we had last year. We love our linebackers, love our D-Line. We've got some good tight ends, we've got some good backs, we've got some good O-Linemen, and we've got some inside guys on the O-Line and a quarterback who haven't played a lot. But we've got the team around them to help them and that's what I'm excited about."