John Lynch Says 49ers Believe Trey Lance is "Ready"
Trey Lance is poised to be the starting quarterback of the 49ers in 2022.
While the 49ers haven't outright named him the starter, they do express how much faith and hype they have with Lance. It occurred at the NFL scouting combine, the NFL owners meetings, and now it has occured Monday the pre-draft press conference.
"We are great believers in what Trey Lance brings to the table," said Lynch. "We believe he's ready. He's going to have to show that. I think he's ready to show that to us, show that to his teammates, and show that to the world. We're excited for that opportunity that he has."
Well said by Lynch to publicly give Lance the vote of confidence. This is what he, Kyle Shanahan, and any other coach should be doing with him. Building up his confidence is just as important as the off-field work that Lance is putting in right now. They need him to come into training camp feeling saucy. If this is going to be his team, he needs to feel it and exude that confidence.
However, Jimmy Garoppolo is still on the roster.
That gunks up the works of having Lance start in 2022. Until Garoppolo is off the roster, or whenever the 49ers finally outright declare it publicly, then Lance cannot be fully locked in as the starter. Before talking about the belief in Lance, Lynch curiously mentioned "competition." He stated that the 49ers "always believe in competition," which makes me wonder if the 49ers at this point are now adapting a new plan with Garoppolo.
Perhaps, they want him in training camp to compete with Lance. To see if Lance can be pushed and show that he can take the job himself rather than be gifted it. Since trading Garoppolo was a complete failure, and trading him during training camp is also bleak, they could see retaining him for training camp and even beyond as more beneficial.
It certainly would be an interesting way to go about it, but not one that would be the most wise. At that point, it would just cause or have the risk of causing division since Garoppolo has a lot of love and loyalty from other players in the locker room. If Lynch is speaking the truth that the 49ers believe Lance is ready, then they will cut Garoppolo without him seeing much, if any, of the field for practice.
All the 49ers do at this point is talk, but don't actually show their belief in Lance. So long as Garoppolo remains, it cannot be ruled out that they run it back with him. Everything the 49ers say means little right now until they back it up with their actions regarding belief in Lance.
