San Francisco 49ers Finally Explain Why They Traded Trey Lance And How It Came About
In the lead-up to the Trey Lance demotion to No. 3 quarterback in San Francisco and his subsequent trade, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch went into a sort of radio silence.
Neither spoke with reporters. Both only spoke to broadcast partners at first.
That changed after Friday night's preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Both Shanahan and Lynch addressed their trading of the former No. 3 overall pick of the 2021 draft to Dallas Cowboys for a fourth-round pick.
Trey Lance Requested Trade From 49ers
It turns out Lance on Wednesday requested a trade about 90 minutes after he was told of the demotion. And his agent was then given permission to help the Niners look for a trade partner.
Multiple teams showed interest in Lance. According to reports the Bills, Lions and Ravens also were interested in acquiring Lance.
"We kind of worked on it together, and I told Patrick Collins, his rep, I told Patrick feel free to go out and find teams if you want," Lynch said late Friday night. "So, we kind of kept in communication during the process. And I want to let you guys know, Trey was tremendous during this whole thing. He handled it as well as you could and just asked if there a good landing spot I'd be appreciative of that, but if I'm here, I'm here."
The idea that Lance had to be traded has a genesis in him losing the No. 2 job to Sam Darnold, who was added to the roster in the offseason. With starter Brock Purdy taking first-team snaps, the job of running the scout team falls to the backup, which is now Darnold.
So Lance, who needs to play to get better, wasn't going to even get team practice repetitions during the comping season.
Shanahan, Lynch: 'Pretty Apparent' Darnold Won
Shanahan, meanwhile, defended the idea of Darnold beating out Lance, calling it "pretty apparent for all of us," when most accounts had Darnold and Lance neck-and-neck in the competition.
"I think it was a tight battle and I think Kyle would say the same thing," Lynch said. "But ultimately, coaches are paid to make those decisions and they felt collectively that Sam had separated himself and that wasn't for lack of Trey competing his tail off. He improved greatly.
"So, I think we were real proud of the effort he made. Sam has had a really good camp and you see Sam's arm talent, his abilities. I think the same reasons why we were interested in bringing him here have kind of come to fruition. Now, it's going to happen, but ultimately we felt that was the best decision. And then, I explained from there."
Lance News Leaked Before 49ers Players Knew
Shanahan said Lance saw the proverbial writing on the wall. He got an inkling, sort of, that he was losing the competition.
So the coach decided to tell his former top draft pick, not realizing the news would leak immediately. It was all public before either Darnold or the rest of the team found out.
"I could get a sense that he was starting to feel that we felt that way," Shanahan said. "It was the truth and I don't want to B.S. him. So, once I thought that once we knew and once I could tell he knew that we knew, I remember the night before I realized, I'm going to come in the morning and tell him.
"I don't want that between us. So, I did. Didn't expect it to get out right away. But it did. But that was something I thought I owed to Trey. I told Trey right before a team meeting that we had. I didn't get a chance to even tell Sam or anyone else on the team."
San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch, here at a Indianapolis Combine press conference, accepts Trey Lance not working out for team, saying "we own that." Getty Images
Lynch, Shanahan Say 49ers 'Own' Draft Mistake
The 49ers gave up three first round draft picks for the right to climb from No. 12 to No. 3 in the 2021 draft. That was the move they used to select Lance.
So, it's kind of a disaster when the player picked that high not only doesn't produce but is gone from the team midway through his rookie contract.
Lynch and Shanahan get that.
"Back to what we put into him, we take, believe me, we take full accountability," Lynch said. "We own that. As I said on TV today, I think his story is very much unwritten. I've got a lot of belief in the kid and think with his talent, with his work ethic he's going to forge a nice career in this thing."
Said Shanahan: "Obviously we took our shot and it didn't work out. So, that's on us for that. But I'm not going to say anything as in 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."