Now that the 49ers season is over, the expectation is that the franchise will move on from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in favor of No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance for 2022.
Lance didn’t play much after the first few weeks of the season, though he did start two games when Garoppolo was out due to injury. He did start the Week 17 win over Houston, going 16-of-23 passing for 249 yards with a pair of touchdowns and an interception. He also rushed for 31 yards on eight carries.
But the 2021 season was mainly about learning and developing for Lance. According to left tackle Trent Williams, Lance did well from that standpoint.
“I think this year, it played out how everyone in the organization thought it would,” Williams said Monday, via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. “They wanted to give [Lance] a year to kind of continue to develop, being a 21-year-old. He was just old enough to buy his first beer or pack of cigarettes like a few months ago. We can’t just put the weight of the world on his shoulders, even though he is a young man who can handle it. I think it went exactly how we wanted it to go.”
In six appearances with two starts, Lance completed 58 percent of his passes for 603 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions as a rookie. Williams also noted that Lance’s inquisitive nature should help him going forward. The left tackle spoke with Lance for about an hour following the loss in the NFC Championship game about the partnership between a QB and the offensive line.
“He’s not one of those people who thinks he knows it all,” Williams said. “He’s someone that comes to learn and comes to work. He’s always picking brains, no matter what position you play.”
As the 49ers move into the Lance era, they’ll need him to translate all those questions into on-field success.
Trent Williams: We can’t just put the weight of the world on Trey Lance’s shoulders originally appeared on Pro Football Talk