Why the Offseason Will do Little to Help Trey Lance Become the Starter
From starter to backup.
That is the journey that Trey Lance has faced in the last year. The writing had been on the wall since the offseason began for the 49ers but became official when both John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan spoke at the NFL's annual meetings. Brock Purdy is being given the nod as the starting quarterback, which puts Lance in a competition with newcomer Sam Darnold.
The 49ers want Lance to show them what he can do and see if he can earn the temporary starting job with Purdy on the mend. An uphill rugged path lies in front of Lance in order to get back to being the franchise quarterback. Unfortunately for him, the offseason will do little to help Lance become the starter.
Winning that role is impossible in OTAs, training camp, and the preseason. Purdy is cemented as the starter regardless of what Lance does. All he is doing this offseason is preventing himself from being buried on the depth chart to Sam Darnold and essentially being given up on. He needs to look the part throughout all of the practices and preseason games.
In fact, Lance can hurt his stock more during offseason activities than he can help it. The most Lance can do is just separate himself from Darnold, and maybe even get his coaches and teammates to start feeling confident in his abilities. It would definitely help his stock if he can sway the minds of his teammates to give himself strong support. That is the first step for Lance. Any stretch of bad practices where his teammates are left scratching their head, especially if Darnold is playing well, will set him back and make an already difficult uphill climb an impossible one.
Lance just has to look the part and be steps ahead of Darnold. That should be achievable even if he is coming back from a broken ankle. The only shot Lance has in retaking the starting quarterback position is in an actual regular season game. But he won't make it to Week 1 and possibly beyond if he doesn't take care of business from now until September. Otherwise, Darnold will take the initial start and keep the seat warm whenever Purdy is fully fit to take over duties.
The odds are definitely stacked against Lance. He is basically in a spot where his chances of being the starter again are fairly low. But so long as he can bring back that same electricity as he did when he started training camp his rookie season, or even just close to that, then he will be giving himself some momentum going into the regular season. From there, retaking the starting job will be in his hands. It is not going to take just a couple of impressive games either.
The bright side to this is if Lance does actually regain his starting status, then he will have done so by displaying incredible talent and efficiency. It'll only bode well for him and the 49ers.
