John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan Explain why Trey Lance is Ready to Start
A week ago, Trey Lance wasn't ready to replace an injured Jimmy Garoppolo, according to the 49ers. That's what Garoppolo kept playing.
Now, the 49ers are preparing to trade Garoppolo and turn the team over to Lance.
What changed? Why will Lance be ready next season when he wasn't ready last week?
I asked that question to John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan on Tuesday. Here's what they said about Lance and Garoppolo, too.
ME: What gives you two confidence that Trey Lance is ready to take over as the starting quarterback, if that's the route you choose to take?
KS: “Just being around him all year. I thought he had the ability we saw in college. We knew it was at a different level and we knew we were very limited on the amount he got to play, especially missing the last year of COVID. So you have to go off what you see on tape and believing in the person and we did. Having him here for a whole year, I feel stronger about that. He's got the ability to do it. He's got the mind to do it. And I think he's the type of person who can handle all the stuff that goes with it.”
JL: “Yeah. I would just echo that. He is who we thought he was and probably even stronger. You have to have a lot to you. You have to have a lot of substance to play quarterback in this league both physically and from just a who you are standpoint. And I think Trey checks both those boxes and what you know is the things that Kyle and his staff have identified for Trey on things to work with. This guy's focus, his work ethic. He'll have a plan and it will be a comprehensive one and when you have the talent and you have that ability. Then I think what he showed me is that in the moments, and there were few, but when he had an opportunity to go play, I saw that competitive greatness that you look for in people who are going to lead your organization. And so even though we saw it, however brief it was, I saw it. And so it gives me a lot of belief that it's there and that he's exactly who we thought he was when we picked him. And we're really excited about that.”
Q: What is your directive is for Trey Lance in the offseason?
KS: “I'll go yeah with Trey, he needs to take a couple weeks off. He's been going since pre-Draft stuff, getting ready for the Combine and all that. So Trey's going to take a couple weeks off and then he's going to go down to Southern California and work with some guys throwing the ball, isolate on that, just his throwing motion, working on that all the time, which I'd say 80-percent of the quarterbacks in this league do that. It'll be real good for Trey to kind of get away from us and just focus on those things. And we'll be in touch through the whole thing and we'll get him back here and start talking X's and O's and scheme and footwork, just preparing him hopefully to have a good phase one, two and three of OTAs.”
Q: Trey Lance question. What do you think you learned about him this season specifically, where did he improve the most? And did you ever think about getting him in there for two, four, six plays, even at the season?
KS: “Yeah, I think what I learned most about Trey is I learned that he was the person that we were banking on him being. When you go through a Draft process, especially with the COVID rules we had where you weren't allowed to really be with someone in person, you're allowed to watch him at a distance from a pro day, you're allowed to have zooms and talk to him, so we got to put a lot of time into that stuff, so I felt like we really had a good feel of who he was, but you never know until you really get with someone and just being with him this whole year. He's the good person, the good human that we thought, he has the work ethic we thought, he's as smart as we thought, he's got a natural charisma to him that I believe as a leader. He's kind of the baby on the team this year, just in terms of his age, but he has a presence to him that people will gravitate to when he has that position. Stuff I thought he learned the most of was this was his first time playing in almost two years. And we asked him to do a lot of different things and just watching him play in the pocket, watching him work on play actions that he didn't get to do as much in college. He had never done a seven-step drop before, which is how a lot of play actions are. He'd always done five and trying to mess with his feet and timing of all different types of plays. I thought it was great for him. It was great experience for him and I think it was good that he could kind of sit back and watch all that and not get forced into stuff where he’s learning it and doing it for the first time at full speed versus NFL defenses, because it's a lot harder. But yeah, towards the end of the year, I never thought about just trying to get him in because I knew that was about to come. When we were 3-5, that was kind of the breaking point where I knew it was getting close. I know everyone else thought it was there, which I agreed it was getting close to there, but once we won that game and went to 4-5 and ended up winning four in a row, I thought we had a chance. And when you're doing that, you don't want to mess with the team. I would've done it for strategic reasons, if I thought it helped, but I wasn't going to do it just to help Trey get 4-6 plays and ease him in at that time, because that's not what we were thinking about at that time. We were thinking about how we can get our team to the playoffs. And once we got to the playoffs, we were thinking how we could win each game, because we knew only one team was going to be happy at the end. And we're not that happy.”
Q: Was there any doubt in your mind that this situation would work? Because obviously, from our angle there's questions over whether it's tenable to bring Trey into this situation with the dynamics. So what was your level of confidence going in that it would work? Why were you confident?
KS: “You just try to make football decisions and when you do something that you don't have the exact answer to and you can't tell everybody, this is what we did, so we're going to cut this and just make it very simple. We wanted to do what's best for the Niners. And sometimes you're forced to make a decision, whether that's because of a salary cap reason, contracts, an owner then you do, but none of those situations forced our hand. So we truly wanted to let it play out. And you're confident because of the building you're in, the people you're with. When dealing with John, a guy who's not going to just come and as soon as something goes bad, tell me the opposite, which you deal with a lot in this league, same with the owner. So yeah, you have confidence you can pull it off because of the people. But you know you're only going to pull it off from a perception standpoint, if you win. And if you lose, you're not. So you understand the reality of that. I'm not mad at anyone for that, but I also understand that's not the reality of what happens. You have to do a lot of stuff that goes into winning and usually, whether you win or lose, the head coach, the GM, the quarterback and the coordinators, those are the things that are going to get evaluated very hard, but there's so much that goes into it. And you're just trying to make the best decisions as consistently as you can to give yourself the best chance to win football games. And that's why I really, and I talked about it a lot, that's why I like being here, because I feel out of any place I've ever been, that's never an issue. I always feel like we can do that 100-percent, it doesn't mean you're always going to be right. But when you work at it and you got good people, talented people, I feel like you're right the majority of the time and the more you can stack that up, I feel we’ve got a better chance to continue to have a winning team and eventually get to what our only goal is and that's winning the championship.
JL: “Yeah, it's a great answer. And I think really what Kyle hit on, it's trust. Trust is earned in life. Trust is certainly earned in this league and I think the trust, the equity that we had put in with Jimmy, with his representatives and frankly the way that both sides have communicated and been nothing but completely upfront. And then I would point to, I think Jimmy Garoppolo deserves a ton of credit because of the way he handled the situation. I said it to the team yesterday, that the way not only he went about competing, competition brings out the best in everyone, it certainly did with Jimmy, but the way he also welcomed Trey and helped him along the way, it was a really nice thing to see. And I think it speaks volume to who he is. Trey's obviously, they're both very similar in that they're both Midwest guys who kind of have Midwest values, they're good people and that showed itself and I think was a great example for our team that you can compete at the highest levels, but still all be working for the same goal and that was especially true. And so I’m real proud of the organization and those individuals for pulling it off.”
Q: Following up on that somewhat, Trey told us yesterday that Jimmy will be one of his best friends for the rest of his life. How did you see that relationship develop from the beginning of the offseason program to the end of the season?
KS: “They're respectful guys, so you knew how they would act when they met. Neither of them are going to be the immature one. They're competing against each other, they know that. They’re competitive as can be, but they're always respectful. And then when you start like that, and I think you're in a decent environment and you are the type of people that John was just saying, it just grew. I believe Trey when he says that. It sounds like a 21-year old comment and I know he means it. And I think Jimmy feels the same. Like I've been in a bunch of good quarterback rooms. I've been in some bad ones. But I can't think of one that was better than this from those two to [QB] Nate [Sudfeld] to [quarterbacks coach] Rich Scangarello to [offensive passing game specialist] Bobby [Slowik]. Myself in there a bunch. It was a really genuine, cool room where we enjoyed each other. When we were done with football, the meeting didn't always just end, sometimes we would just sit there and hang out and that was genuine. So what Trey said, he meant. And I know Jimmy feels the same way and that's one of the reasons we were able to do something like this.”
Q: I’m assuming both of you have met with Jimmy Garoppolo after the season, after the final game and what promises have you given him? What's going to be your approach as it pertains to how you're going to handle his situation?
General Manager John Lynch: “Yeah, I think you know from being around this business, the finality of this thing. I think we're all creatures of habit. And no one wants to face the reality that this thing may be ending. And so you kind of put things like that off after a season and man, this was a ride that had so many different turns in it. And I think it was special just to be able to sit down with Jimmy and let him know how appreciative we are as an organization of the way he handled everything, the way he played, the toughness that he exhibited and just expressed my admiration for him and the way he handled everything this season and during his time with us. The commitment was just that we're going to communicate, as we always have. And we're going to be completely upfront and honest and that Kyle and I, right now it's an evaluation stage. And while we talk all the time, again, the season just ended. And so we've got we've got a lot to think about, with our team in general and certainly at that position. And the commitment was just that everything we do will be communicated in a very straightforward manner as I think we've always done with him.”
Head Coach Kyle Shanahan: “Same as John. Like if we knew exactly what was happening, we would've told Jimmy, but this season just ended and we’ve got a great young quarterback who was a rookie and we have a great quarterback here who's a veteran. We've had Jimmy here for five years and he's got to play in two of those seasons fully. And before this year, it was only one out of four years, and that was our big worry going into it, that we could not go into another year where he didn't make it through. And I think he only missed one game this year. And the two years he's played, he's taken us to a Super Bowl and he's taken us really close in NFC Championship Game. So I’ve got the ultimate respect for Jimmy, and I'm very excited about [QB] Trey [Lance]. And that's where we're at right now. Jimmy’s made it a lot harder, because he stayed healthy and he played like he is capable of playing, which is to me one of the better quarterbacks in this league. So we're in a tough situation, not a tough situation, a situation where you have to make some tough decisions that won't be easy, but I'm happy about that. That means you’ve got the best scenario going, and that's why we have put a lot of thought into this. John and I talking to [CEO] Jed [York] and Jimmy will know everything as we go.”
Q: A couple follow ups on Jimmy. I know you guys said you're just starting to dig into it. How important is it though to get resolution on that quickly, just so that you can kind of plan out your offseason financially and all those things and also given your respect that you guys both talked about for him, how much will you let him kind of maybe be involved in the process in terms of maybe where he lands, if you go that way?
JL: “Yeah, I think we've talked about this before. Kyle and I, there's always ongoing conversations, but Kyle's got a job to lead a team during a season. So, it's hard to really wrap your arms about big decisions until we have those opportunities. And so now that starts, and the way the league year is structured, there is some time. Obviously, that will start in earnest right away. And it's not like we've been pushing it aside. It's just that I think one thing we both feel incredibly fortunate is that we have an ownership group that, for instance, last year when we presented that idea, I think a lot of ownership groups would've laughed in our face. Hey, we got this we want to make a trade to move up to here, but we'd also like to keep our starter at a relatively high number. And instead, you know, it was Jed said, ‘Hey, do you feel like it's the right deal? Can we do it? Have you run through all those scenarios?’ And the answer was yes. And so I think now we just need that time to really start focusing on the implications of every move that we might make and that will start right away.”
KS: “Yeah, the way Jimmy played, the way our owner is, the way Jimmy's contract is, it's not like there's a big guarantee next week. And we don't have an owner who, from what he just said, is going to just say, ‘Hey, no, you have to do this because of A, B and C.’ It’s pretty simple with Jed, he wants to do whatever's best for this team. And when you have a quarterback who played like Jimmy did last year, we have a young guy waiting to eventually get an opportunity. There's a lot of good options there and that's why all cards are on the table. And it's cool that we're in a place where all cards can be on the table, because usually they're not in that situation. And that's why we're going to make sure to try to make the best decision for this team, which is always still an educated guess because you'll see the results after it happens. But we're not going to be in any rush to do that, because we want to make sure to get it right.”
