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“Trey Lance is here, and he needs to be on that field.”: 49ers legend Steve Young snubs Jimmy Garoppolo while speaking on the QB battle in San Francisco

Yashvardhan Sharma
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Trey Lance

Hall of Fame QB Steve Young backs Trey Lance in his battle for QB1 against Jimmy Garoppolo

In the weeks leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft, the 49ers made a blockbuster deal to move up to the third overall pick. On draft night, they selected QB Trey Lance from North Dakota State. Lance, although unproven due to his limited reps as a college QB, was one of the best raw talents in the draft, and the 49ers were all in on that gamble.

Read also: Trey Lance Preseason Debut: What to expect from 49ers Rookie in NFL Preseason Game.

On the other hand, there is Jimmy Garoppolo. A seven-year veteran QB who has been on multiple Super Bowl winning squads and has a ton of championship experience. He even lead the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance in 2020, where they ultimately fell to the Kansas City Chiefs. Needless to say, this is one of the best QB battles we have had in a long time.

Even though HC Kyle Shanahan has made it abundantly clear that Garoppolo is gonna be the starting QB come week 1, there are fans and analysts who believe it should be Lance who gets the job.

Lance, in his professional debut, in a 19-16 preseason loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, went 5-for-14, throwing for 128 yards. This included an 80-yard touchdown pass to WR Trent Sherfield.

In his second game, a 15-10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, Lance threw 8-for-14 for 102 yards.

Steve Young is all in on Trey Lance

Garoppolo’s had a solid training camp and was pretty good in the preseason games as well. However, HOF QB Steve Young, who is also a 3x Super Bowl champion with the 49ers believes it should be Lance who starts week 1.

He says that the 49ers have invested a bunch of their future assets into drafting Lance, and that is because they know that Garoppolo is not the long term answer for them at QB. He believes that Garoppolo has the support of the locker room and if he gets the 49ers off to a good start, it’s going to make it tougher for them to give Lance an opportunity later in the season, and that will be detrimental to his development.

Garoppolo is the safest bet for QB1

The general consensus around the league is that Garoppolo is a lock for the starting QB job. The 49ers, unlike other teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New York Jets, teams who also picked top-tier QBs in the draft, are a playoff-caliber team and will start the veteran QB in order to stay in the playoff race from the beginning.

However, Garoppolo’s reliability has been a huge question mark, both in terms of health and in terms of his performance under high-pressure circumstances. He was one of the key players injured during the majority of the 2020-21 season when the 49ers failed to cut it as even an above-average team, finishing just 6-10 and at the bottom of the stacked NFC West.

If Garoppolo gets injured again or fails to produce at the high level that the 49ers expect him to, we might see Trey Lance get the starting QB job and take over things at Levi’s Stadium.

Read also: Kyle Shanahan reacts to Trey Lance’s preseason debut.

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