First Trey Lance Lowlight of Training Camp Has Emerged

The Trey Lance situation in San Francisco is a very weird one. Lance started two games last season after spending the previous year on the bench behind Jimmy Garoppolo. The first game he started was in a torrential downpour in Chicago and both teams combined for 284 yards passing. The second game was held under much better conditions but Lance broke his ankle in the first half and was done for the year. As a result the 49ers have no idea what they have in the guy they traded multiple first-round picks to draft because he’s played one and a half NFL games as a starting QB and only started 17 games in college at North Dakota State.

This isn’t as big of a problem as it would be for other franchises because Kyle Shanahan is very good at making his QB’s job very easy. That’s part of why Brock Purdy, the 7th-rounder out of Purdue, was able to lead the team to the NFC Championship Game after Lance and Garoppolo went down. Which makes the Lance situation all the more fascinating and a storyline worth watching as training camp commences. He has all the physical talent in the world but Purdy has proof of concept in terms of execution in Shanahan’s offense. Will the third overall pick from the 2021 NFL Draft continue to ride the pine, even when healthy?

Videos of Lance at camp this year have been largely complimentary, as is often the case with offensive players before the pads go on. But our first true lowlight appeared on Monday night and honestly it’s hilarious. Here’s Lance absolutely airmailing a pass while doing a weird bowl-legged drill.

Here’s the part where I am contractually obligated to remind you to not take this too seriously. Most quarterbacks have bad throws like this throughout the summertime. Whatever ends up on Twitter is, like, one percent of what happens on the field every day.

There. I said it. Now we are allowed to laugh a little about this. A classic “just a bit outside” throw. If only that coach were a foot and a half taller! It would’ve been right on the money.

Not the most encouraging thing in the world for Lance stans but also not the worst. He’s just getting all the bad throws out of his system before the games start!