Last year, reports surfaced that the San Francisco 49ers might be concerned about quarterback Trey Lance dealing with arm fatigue during his rookie season. However, head coach Kyle Shanahan, speaking with The Athletic, tried to debunk the rumors of any concern.
"No, it's not a concern at all," Shanahan said in June of 2022. "Trey had some injuries last year when he broke his finger and stuff that he had to adjust some things to fight through and get through, which made him have some weeks where he did have a sore arm and things like that. But, I haven't had a quarterback I've ever gone through in my career where there wasn't one time in that year where their arm wasn't bothering them. So, there's no like difference in other guys or arm fatigue or anything like that."
Speaking with quarterback coach Quincy Avery on Thursday during his live show, The Q, on Amp, Lance was asked about those reports. Avery explained that between the final year of college football and a rookie season, a quarterback will throw the football more than any time in their life. That is due to workouts leading to the draft and the rigors of the NFL offseason, a new experience for all rookies.
"Yeah, it was just honestly, I don't know," Lance told Avery. "If there's someone out there at quarterback throwing that much, I mean, it was just, realistically, going back—COVID, and then I started throwing in May because I was rehabbing my hip. So that was when I started getting the ball back in my hand, in May. So I threw from May 2020 all the way through that year, draft prep, get drafted the next April.
"So, at that point, I had been throwing for a year straight and then go through that whole season until the next January. So I'd say probably, I don't know, about 20 months straight of throwing. Like I said, probably a week off in there. I don't even know if I took a whole week [off] between that whole time. But through that whole season, yeah, for probably 20 months straight."
Lance is coming off a season-ending ankle injury and two surgeries. He expects to be full-go by organized team activities (OTAs) in May. Lance will have most of the offseason reps to himself, with Brock Purdy sidelined for six months due to the ligament injury in his right elbow sustained during the NFC Championship Game.
Lance is entering his third NFL season but has only started four NFL games. San Francisco made the former North Dakota State quarterback the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
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