San Francisco 49ers Coach Gives Vote Of Confidence To Trey Lance

KEY POINTS

Kyle Shanahan believes Trey Lance is ready to take over as the starting play-caller
Jimmy Garoppolo is expected to return next season but as Lance's backup
Garoppolo could regain his old post if Lance fails to live up to expectations

The San Francisco 49ers appear to be ready to transition to the Trey Lance era if the recent comments made by head coach Kyle Shanahan are to be believed.

Since drafting Lance in 2021, the Minnesota native was hailed as the future face of the franchise.

Based on how Shanahan was talking to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, it appears the 42-year-old mentor is ready to make the big jump.

"I think our team's ready for Trey, going through OTAs," Shanahan said. "I'm just pumped to get to work and provide him some practices cuz I know the kid has the ability. He's made of the right stuff. He just needs the reps, and he's gotta start banking those."

Of course, several other factors contributed to the growing belief that Lance's rein as the main quarterback is at hand.

Jimmy Garoppolo underwent offseason shoulder surgery, a move that the Niners were allegedly unaware of.

This spurned plans of a potential NFL trade with several teams as most of the are wary of taking in the two-time Super Bowl champion due to health concerns.

Expected to return in August, there is no telling if Garoppolo is fit to play competitive NFL football once more.

The best to expect is seeing the 30-year-old serve as a backup to Lance unless the 22-year-old wilts under the pressure this coming 2022-23 NFL season.

Pundits see Garoppolo being moved somewhere in the season. However, that may only become a reality once NFL teams in need of a proven play-caller get to see if he is worth trading for.

"Had an awesome run with Jimmy, and it was great. But when you bring in a salary cap and things like that, there are just so many tough decisions you have to make. And we made that a year ago. And we got to here, and I was so happy how Jimmy played last year, and that he took us almost to the Super Bowl, got healthy," Shanahan said of Garoppolo.

"Guys around him played really well around him. But this is something that we did last year, knowing where we wanted to go with this franchise and how you balance out a salary cap, how you balance out a roster. And Jimmy gave Trey a year that I thought he needed, just to get used to this league, to get his feet wet a little bit."