San Francisco 49ers beat reporters finally had an opportunity to question head coach Kyle Shanahan about the QB2 decision and subsequent trading of quarterback Trey Lance. The conversation came after the team's preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers.
The 49ers spent three first-round picks and a third-rounder to move up in the 2021 NFL Draft to select Lance. On Friday, before the final preseason game, the team shipped him to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a fourth-round pick.
The first question for Shanahan? Why was trading Lance a good move for the organization?
"We decided who our two were going to be, that we were going with," Shanahan responded. "We'll see how our 53 works out to see if we're going to keep three or not. When we told Trey, when we told him that he wasn't the two, I said we'd like to keep him here as the three, but we also want to do what's good for him, too, and we'll see how this plays out.
"When we looked into other teams, and he told us that he would like another opportunity to go somewhere where he had a chance to be the two, we thought we got some good deals for him. There was a number of teams involved. To end up getting the fourth was a little better than we anticipated and clears up a lot of money and allows a better situation for him, too."
The 49ers were prepared to carry Lance on the 53-man roster but wanted to do what was best for him, and Lance told the team he wanted a shot to be a QB2 somewhere. That meant finding the third-year quarterback a new home.
"I told him, when we told him that he was going to be the three, if he could find another opportunity that was good, we'd allow him to do that, and he did," Shanahan said. "And we feel he'll be better for it, and I think we will, too."
Does Shanahan have any regrets about how he managed Lance's time with the 49ers?
"I always feel like I let Trey down," Shanahan admitted. "I mean, I wanted him to come here. I believe in Trey. I believed in him before we took him, and I'm responsible for that. I didn't want to throw him into the heat of battle right away, but I thought he needed to play. So we tried to figure out every way to do that."
Lance ended up breaking a finger in a preseason game during his rookie season. The coach regrets that because it hurt the young quarterback's potential for early growth. It was a significant setback for Lance.
"When we went into the second year, we gave him every chance to do it," Shanahan continued. "We were going to make an offense that, to me, gave him the best chance to be successful at that time, which we did do. And when you do that, you hope a guy can stay healthy so he can stay out there long enough. But that didn't last long."
Lance suffered a season-ending ankle injury during Week 2.
Shanahan added, "After that, I always felt for him, and we continue to work with him, but sometimes things just don't work out."
How does Shanahan look back on the whole experience? The 49ers gave up a lot to bring Lance in to be the face of the franchise. The move reflects poorly on the team's decision-makers, and could go down as one of the worst draft trades in NFL history.
"Obviously we took our shot, and it didn't work," Shanahan said. "I mean, that's on us for that. But I'm not going to say anything [was a] failure. That'd be too much of a negative towards Trey. I get our deal. We took a shot to go for that. We were hoping that he could be our guy, and that didn't work out. So I understand that from our standpoint, but I still do believe in Trey."
The 49ers hoped to build their roster around a quarterback on a rookie deal. That still ended up happening. It won't be Lance, though. It will be second-year quarterback Brock Purdy, who the 49ers drafted with the last overall pick a year after adding Lance.
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