Should the 49ers Have Kept Trey Lance?

The 49ers are one play away from Joshua Dobbs or Brandon Allen starting games for them.

The 49ers had their reasons to trade Trey Lance when they did, but now their backup quarterback is Joshua Dobbs. Wouldn't Lance be better?

The 49ers trade Lance because they didn't need him to start anymore -- Brock Purdy had taken his job. And they didn't need Lance to be the backup either, because they signed Sam Darnold and preferred him. So they traded Lance during last year's preseason to the Dallas Cowboys for a fourth-round pick -- a decent return for a quarterback who has started just four games in the NFL.

No one on the 49ers missed Lance last season because Purdy stayed healthy and played well. But head coach Kyle Shanahan never has kept a starting quarterback healthy for two seasons in a row -- he has a long history of getting quarterbacks injured. And if he misses time next season, Sam Darnold won't replace him, because he recently signed with the Minnesota Vikings.

Which means the 49ers are one play away from Joshua Dobbs or Brandon Allen starting games for them. And both of them may be decent backup quarterbacks. Dobbs certainly had some good moments last season when he started 12 games, winning 3 of them. But wouldn't Lance be a better option?

If the 49ers knew they would lose Darnold after just one year, would they have signed him and traded Lance? Because they got nothing from Darnold and then he left, and now they're stuck with Dobbs and Allen.

The 49ers used to talk about how strong their quarterback room was. It would be much stronger now if it still had Lance in it.