What if Trey Lance was healthy enough to play come January. Could the San Francisco 49ers bring back their young star for the Super Bowl chase?
It all started with a tweet, as so many stories do, these days. Trey Lance was spotted by ESPN’s Nick Wagoner in the San Francisco 49ers locker room walking without the aid of a boot, or crutches.
This is not an insignificant milestone. Roughly two months ago, Lance suffered an extremely painful and disruptive ankle injury, as described by Wagoner.
The fact that he is already making these strides is encouraging. Both in the short and long term.
Recently, 49ers general manager John Lynch discussed Lance’s approach to rehab. He praised the young quarterback and made it clear Lance is doing everything humanly possible to get back to full strength as quickly as possible.
“You know what you have to do? Exactly what Trey is doing already, and that’s to be a man possessed on recovery and doing everything possible. And that’s what Trey’s doing,” Lynch told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports.
“He’s living here. He’s in our team meetings, which has been awesome to see. I think it lifts the guys. He’s invested in his team, but he’s also invested in the healing process. That was frustrating for him early on because it was a non-weight-bearing thing, so he was on that little scooter for a while (laughs), which guys were having fun with him about. Now he’s on crutches, you know, partial weight-bearing, but he’s grinding.
“He’s convicted to come back and put himself in the best position to be a guy for this team moving forward. And that’s what it takes, that kind of single-mindedness, and he has it. It’s one of the reasons we brought him here.”
Suddenly, many are wondering if there’s any chance at all the 49ers would consider opening the practice window for Lance, who is currently on Injured Reserve.
When he was initially injured, the 49ers wasted no time ruling Lance out for the remainder of the 2022 NFL season, including the playoffs. Now people are beginning to ponder a reality where the young quarterback could potentially be ready for action before the offseason.
My two cents is this: I would rather see the 49ers stay the course and wait until next season to reinsert Lance into the conversation.
First of all, if the 49ers are in the playoffs, that almost certainly means Jimmy Garoppolo has been pretty darn good most of the season. And there’s no way in hell Kyle Shanahan is going to making a quarterback change at that point in the proceedings. He’s just like that.
Most of the discourse on social media regarding this topic revolves around Trey Lance coming back as Garoppolo’s backup. Because most of us rational fans all get that about Shanahan.
But all it would take is one brain fart interception for fans to start clamoring for Lance to be inserted into the starting lineup. And there are absolutely some reporters who would ask Shanahan if he would consider benching Garoppolo, should the 49ers overcome such an interception and go on to win the game.
It’s an unnecessary distraction.
And it’s one I believe the 49ers should not, and will not consider inserting into their Quest for Six, should they get that far in 2022.
What’s your take? Let us know in the comments section below.
