The 49ers are Listening to Trade Offers for Trey Lance

The 49ers might trade Trey Lance in the next week or two.

They already have been fielding calls from teams who are interested in trading for Lance, according to The NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, who doesn't name any of the interested teams. He also says the 49ers haven't made calls about trading Lance -- they merely have answered the phone and listened.

Here's how I interpret this report.

Rapoport didn't name the teams that have called the 49ers, so I'm guessing none of those teams are his sources about this. I'm guessing his sources come from the 49ers.

Why would the 49ers want this story to come out?

This could be their way of telling the entire league that they're open to trading Lance, but the offers haven't been good enough yet. And the NFL Draft is next week, which means a pseudo deadline is approaching. Teams that want a quarterback either will draft one or trade for Lance, so the 49ers need to make a deal happen now or not at all.

I'm guessing teams that might call the 49ers to check on the price for Lance would be the Minnesota Vikings, the Tennessee Titans, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and maybe even the Detroit Lions. That's just a guess, though.

It's been reported the 49ers want a second-round pick and a fourth-round pick in exchange for Lance. I bet they could get a fourth-round pick this year and a conditional pick next year that could become a second rounder if he plays well and hits certain statistical benchmarks. But any team that trades for Lance could sit him for another year, so a conditional pick might not help the 49ers.

They have until the draft next weekend to figure this out.