The Trey Lance Injury: Good, Bad, Both?

Welp, thank god the 49ers kept Jimmy G. When Try Lance went out for the year with a broken ankle early in a Week 2 game against the Seattle Seahawks, all hope was lost. Enter Jimmy Garoppolo. Enter the 49ers’ starter since 2017. Enter the 49ers’ starter in their lone Super Bowl appearances. Enter the 49ers’ starter with a record of 32-15 (68.1% winning percentage) into the mix. While the 49ers are 1-2, they are beating the defending Super Bowl Champions, Los Angeles Rams, with only one quarter left to go. Yes, this sounds like everything is going to be alright, but is this situation good for the 49ers’ future. Bad? Or maybe both? Let’s find out.

Bad:

It is undeniable that Trey Lance is the future of the 49ers, and given that he’s only played a grand total of 3.25 games in two years, his development has evidently been severely stunted. Look, Jimmy Garoppolo is good enough to give you wins in regular season games, but you CANNOT give him the reigns to make the big-time throws to win big-time game (enter the blatantly overthrown go-ahead post route to Emmanuel Sanders in Super Bowl 54). Thus, Trey Lance is imperative to the 49ers extending their championship window. Yes, the 49ers appear ok in the present, but their 30 year-old system quarterback can’t carry them forever. No matter how you cut it, Trey Lance’s injury incorporates some uncertainty into the 49ers’ future.

Good:

As I mentioned before, Jimmy Garoppolo does have a history of winning with the 49ers, and since this is his sixth season in the Kyle Shanahan system, the 49ers as of now should be primed to make a deep playoff run (maybe not Super Bowl but certainly to the Conference Championship). Furthermore, with Jimmy G in the mix, Trey Lance is given one more year to familiarize himself with the notoriously complex Kyle Shanahan offense, repeating the trajectory of the 49ers in 2021-2022.

Both:

Welp, when you have a raw (albeit talented) quarterback who is an athletic specimen, breaking his ankle certainly jeopardizes both his development and athletic potential. However, by relieving the pressure off of him, he is given more time to get to know the system he’ll play in. At worst, Trey Lance is a more youthful Jimmy Garoppolo. At best, Trey Lance recovers extremely well and continues to become a game-changing talent. Either way, the 49ers shouldn’t regress, but they’re overall ceiling may have been capped by this setback.