Maybe the Trey Lance era shouldn’t be over in San Francisco.
Two years after trading a fourth-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for Lance, the Dallas Cowboys are prepared to let the former No. 3 overall pick walk in free agency. A reunion may make sense for the 49ers and Lance.
The 49ers still need to figure out their backup quarterback position behind Brock Purdy. Brandon Allen and Josh Dobbs held down that spot last season, but both are slated to hit free agency in March.
There are a slew of veteran options available who may suit what the 49ers want in a backup, but taking another swing with Lance might be a more enticing option.
It’s important to remember the parting between Lance and the 49ers was largely amicable. He lost the QB2 job to Sam Darnold in 2023 and asked to be traded where he’d at least have an opportunity to be the backup. That QB2 job never materialized in Dallas, where Lance was inactive for all 18 weeks of the 2023 season. He was also the QB3 for most of the 2024 campaign.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters after the trade in August of 2023 that the team wanted to keep Lance on their roster, but ultimately dealt him when Dallas came in with an early Day 3 pick.
“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 wanna do what’s good for him too and we’ll see how this plays out,” Shanahan said. “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’s a number of teams involved. To end up getting the fourth was a little better than we’d anticipated, and clears up a lot of money and allows a better situation for him too.”
Inexperience is still an issue with Lance. It was a problem when the 49ers drafted him in 2021, then he went to Dallas where he started only once and threw 41 total passes in his two seasons. However, he’d have an opportunity in San Francisco to step into a playbook he already knows with no pressure to try and get ready to start. Lance would work in only as a backup where he’d get real practice reps running the scout team.
That may allow him to come in and at least be an effective spot starter if Purdy is unavailable for a stretch. After all, any backup the 49ers have will be an inexpensive option the team believes can win a couple games if need be.
There’s certainly a chance Lance isn’t that. He may just never be an effective NFL player.
Lance looked perhaps the best he’s looked on an NFL field during his lone start with Dallas this season. He completed 20-of-34 throws for 244 yards. He also ran six times for 26 yards.
Taking a low-cost, low-risk flier on a soon-to-be 25-year-old former No. 3 overall pick isn’t the worst thing a team can do with the QB2 spot, and it’s something the 49ers should aim to do this offseason.