Why the 49ers are Suddenly Raving About Trey Lance

Trey Lance has been receiving hefty praise recently.

Ever since Joe Montana relayed that some 49ers players do not think Lance is "ready," so much praise about Lance has been said from the 49ers side.

They haven't openly said it, but it is clear that they are using the media to get out their message of full on support. Jay Glazer and Peter King both appeared on the 49ers Talk podcast with Matt Maiocco. Each of them revealed what they're "hearing" from the 49ers' side with Lance.

"I've heard great stuff about him, honestly," said Glazer. "I've heard they love him. They're enamored with him. He does some things in practice that make you go, 'Oh my goodness.' But he's young. I think they did the right thing."

King then doubles down the comments from Glazer on another episode.

“My feeling is — and I feel strong about this — my feeling is: Kyle Shanahan knows right now that he has a good quarterback,” said King. “I will be surprised if Trey Lance in 2022 isn’t as good or better than Jimmy Garoppolo was in 2021."

The final praise comes from Maiocco himself when he appeared on KNBR.

"Everything I've heard from the middle of the season on was that they feel emboldened by that pick they made, and felt like, 'Ok we're on. This is looking good.'"

This is all great to hear from these media sources who have close ties to the 49ers, so you can bet it is the front office and Kyle Shanahan saying this. It is great to hear so much rave, praise, and how enamored the 49ers are about their presumed 2022 starting quarterback. But why are the 49ers suddenly raving about Lance so much? Is it really because of Montana? No.

The truth is they have always felt this way.

There is no way the 49ers went from being so minimal about Lance to all of a sudden give him a hype train. They either have felt this way all along, or they are just trying to build him up for the season. You can also throw in Jim Trotter as someone relayed positive news about Lance as he said the 49ers "were considering starting Lance" at the beginning of the season before his finger injury against the Raiders in the preseason.

The reason this is all coming out now with Lance and not during the season is because of Jimmy Garoppolo. Shanahan and the 49ers couldn't be hyping up Lance with Garoppolo as the starter. That is a complete confidence killer to Garoppolo and they needed him to be ever astute in his position to get the most out of him. They already liked how Garoppolo responded and "improved" when they acquired Lance, so they can't just pile it on with praise when Garoppolo is starting mid-season.

Ultimately, I see all of this praise and enamoredness as a admittance of how they felt about Lance all along. They just didn't want to roll the dice with him as the starter, which I still wholeheartedly believe that had he lit it up against the Chiefs and/or Chargers in the preseason that he would've started. Shanahan just wanted Lance to have that "WOW" game where it "forced his hand" to go with Lance.

I guess Shanahan just wasn't ready to be that developmental coach. We'll see how that pays off in 2022.