How Sam Darnold can Beat out Trey Lance as the 49ers' Starter

Darnold needs to ingratiate himself with the core players of the team, specifically on the offensive side of the ball.

With the NFL draft come and gone, all eyes will be locked on the quarterback competition with the 49ers.

Trey Lance and Sam Darnold will duke it out to see who the starter will be while Brock Purdy is on the mend. Lance has familiarity being entrenched in the offense for two years now but is coming off a significant injury and could be rusty. Darnold will be behind the eight ball and doesn't have any on field connections built, but he is practically a wily veteran at this point, so he should adapt relatively quickly.

I would bet that Lance gets the first-team reps to start out in OTAs because he can kick it off without any delay. Darnold has a bit of ground to make up in order to catch Lance and get the coaches considering him as the starter. There is one way that he can get a head start to cover some ground without taking any snaps in OTAs and training camp. Doing so will aid his efforts in beating out Lance as the 49ers' starting quarterback.

Darnold needs to ingratiate himself with the core players of the team, specifically on the offensive side of the ball. This means he needs to be buddy-buddy with George Kittle, Kyle Juszczyk, Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams, and Deebo Samuel. So far, it looks like he has that tight knit bond already sewed with them from the looks of all the Golden State Warriors NBA playoff games they are attending together. That is going to benefit Darnold nicely.

What Darnold is essentially doing is lobbying in the form of hanging out with the core group. This matters because the core group of players, or as Grant Cohn dubs them the "Cabo Clique," have substantial influence. They do not necessarily dictate the starter. That, of course, lies with head coach Kyle Shanahan. However, the core group on the 49ers can dictate the morale. If Darnold is playing badly in practice, they won't get too low on him. And if he plays well, then they will sing like a cannery with loads of praises. 

Lance on the other hand isn't ingratiated with the group. There isn't ill will in terms of Lance as a person, but the core group isn't too fond of him as a player because they know he needs time to develop. It is why last season when the 49ers re-signed Jimmy Garoppolo that Shanahan talked to the core group about pushing support for Lance. Shanahan knew that if Lance wasn't playing well and losses ensued because of it that the players would sour on Lance and call for Garoppolo. 

The 49ers definitely have a clique, and that clique always has its own preferences. Much of that is built off who they are friends with. Circling back to Garoppolo, he wasn't a great player by any measure. But because he was good friends with the core group and was a part of so many winning games, they associated winning heavily with Garoppolo. It didn't matter how he looked. So for Darnold, it is great that he is getting ahead of the curve. The closer he can become with Kittle, McCaffrey, and the rest of the core, the better it will be for him to beat out Lance as the 49ers' starter. 

All he'll have to do from that point is match Lance's performances or come close to it. I think that is all he needs to accomplish to win the starting job because I don't believe Lance is really getting the fairest shot here. We'll get our answer on this competition soon enough with OTAs acting as the first step of it all.