If any San Francisco 49ers player—other than the interior of the offensive line—could have benefitted from more preseason reps, it's Trey Lance. Head coach Kyle Shanahan entered Thursday night's preseason finale with the intent of giving his second-year quarterback two series worth of snaps. Things didn't go so well in those two offensive drives, so Lance headed out there for a third before being done for the night.
Obviously, in a perfect world, Lance would have played more. However, Shanahan had to carefully balance getting his quarterback more experience and keeping him healthy. Considering Lance was under duress for most of the night, thanks to a shaky outing by the offensive line, the 49ers coach probably made the correct choice when he decided enough was enough.
"I would love to get Trey more practice and everything, more experience," Shanahan said Friday on a conference call. "I would always want more of that, but we've run out of those games, and he's as ready to go as he can be. He needs to get in these real games now and start playing.
"There's going to be times he makes some mistakes, and he's got to learn from them and find a way to still win the game and overcome some of those things as he learns on the run."
Lance only played in the first and third preseason games. Against the Green Bay Packers, he was 4-of-5 passing for 92 yards and a touchdown. Against the Texans on Thursday night, the quarterback was 7-of-11 for 49 yards and no touchdowns.
It wasn't a lot of snaps for the 22-year-old Lance, but he escaped the preseason unscathed. That was the priority. Mission accomplished.
"I'm glad he did get some experience in this preseason,' Shanahan added. "I always wish he could have gotten more, but I am glad that he came out healthy this year, where last year, he came out with that broken [finger] that did affect him."