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Trey Lance Should Ask Former 49ers QB Jeff Garcia About Playing in CFL

Lance can't change the past. All he can do is what's best for him now, and that's playing football wherever he can.
October 8, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance (15) watches warm ups before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
October 8, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance (15) watches warm ups before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

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Trey Lance is running out of options.

He clearly wants to stay in the NFL, but no team seems to want him as their starter or their backup or even their project third-stringer. And that's because he hasn't played much since he was 19. His development has been horribly derailed.

Covid wiped out all but one of his college games in 2020. And since 2021, he has thrown a grand total of 143 passes. And his passer rating is a respectable 80.3. And he's a dual threat. And his NFL career might be over before he turns 25. What a shame.

But his football story doesn't have to end in tragedy. Steve Young wasn't a successful NFL quarterback when he was 24. Neither was Jeff Garcia. In fact, Garcia went undrafted and then played in the CFL from 1994 to 1998. Then, he went on to play 11 seasons in the NFL.

Lance should call Garcia and ask him about how the CFL saved his career. I'm guessing Garcia would tell him that he never would have gotten a chance to play in the NFL if he hadn't proven himself in Canada first.

Despite all of Lance's talent, he hasn't proven that he can play quarterback consistently well because he simply hasn't played much the past five years. In retrospect, he probably should have stayed in college and transferred to another school.

But he can't change the past. All he can do is what's best for him now, and that's playing football wherever he can.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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