Trey Lance got his first real taste of NFL action with 39 second-half snaps against the Seahawks in Week 4. The results were mixed. Now the calf injury that sidelined Jimmy Garoppolo and opened the door for Lance’s second-half performance against Seattle appears to be opening the door for his first-career start.
Garoppolo missed Wednesday’s practice which means Lance will get his first crack at the full-time reps with the starters and a full week in a game plan catered to his unique skill set. Head coach Kyle Shanahan explained how a week of practice goes and what’ll be different for Lance.
“Oh, it’s huge. It’s huge for whoever goes in that week,” Shanahan said of a quarterback practicing as the starter. “You put in a new game plan on Wednesday morning and they go out and practice it on Wednesday. And then Thursday, you put in a whole new thing for third down, short yardage, goal line and things like that. And they go out Thursday and do it. And Friday you try to review some stuff, but you put in a bunch of red zone stuff. So that’s why, no matter what the position is, usually the guys you’re expecting to play get all those reps. Because it’s not just the same stuff, you’re doing different numbers, different fronts, different coverages.”
While Lance didn’t play particularly well when thrust into action in Week 4, a full week of game planning would be helpful for obvious reasons. However, Shanahan explained how the full second half of work against Seattle could prove beneficial as well.
“So, to have a week, I think it was huge for him too having all that time where he could just go play quarterback and do some other cards, some other defenses and not really get tied down to learning what’s in that day,” Shanahan said. “Just playing football and getting better at that. These practices are more about learning what we do all morning, carrying it over to the field, correcting it at night, coming in the next morning with questions and how you build up through the week to where you get to Sunday night and you’re confident and ready to go to play.”
This is interesting in the scope of Lance’s long-term development. Shanahan has made it clear he believes playing is the only way to get better, but Lance through 14 quarters had just seven snaps under his belt. Now he has more experience and potentially his first full week of practice to hone in on specific ways to beat the Cardinals’ defense. There should be some form of improvement from the No. 3 overall pick if he is the starter in Arizona. Depending on the breadth of that improvement, the 49ers may want to give him either another chance at starting, or more chances to get on the field where he can continue building toward becoming a franchise quarterback.