1. The excitement over Trey Lance in a Kyle Shanahan offense was the prospect of Trey Lance . Basically, imagine all the things that work well with Jimmy Garoppolo under center, but now instead of just attacking the intermediate level of the defense, you’d have a quarterback who could pull it back on those wide-zone play-action looks and either (a) keep it and escape to the back side—forcing defenses to keep a back-side defender in place on every outside-zone run—or (b) fire a downfield throw outside the opposite hash, putting incredible stress on defenses, both vertically and horizontally.
But the only time we saw Lance in extended action this season, back in Week 5 at Arizona, that wasn’t the offense he ran. The 49ers trotted out a read-option- and QB-power-heavy offense that, frankly, wasn’t very good. And it wasn’t good just because Lance wasn't ready (he wasn't)—it mostly wasn't good because of that fact that, in 2021, opposing defenses are fully adept at defending read-option looks, and, more importantly, the 49ers weren’t adept at running such an offense, because it’s not what they do.
That game was marked by a number of holding penalties on the 49ers’ offensive line, almost all of which were the product of a line used to a disciplined, in-rhythm offense now blocking for a quarterback who was not versed in that style, and was therefore running around and looking to create. And when you have a quarterback who holds the ball and moves around in ways unfamiliar to and unpredictable for the offensive linemen who have their backs to him, you end up with a ton of holding calls (and, ultimately, a 17–10 loss in a very winnable game).
There’s a school of thought that Lance can be what Colin Kaepernick was for the 49ers in 2012, a uniquely skilled quarterback catching opponents off-guard with an offense no one had prepared for. But, really, the most effective use of Lance would be operating an already-difficult-to-stop Shanahan offense at a high level. On Sunday, we’ll see what version of Lance the 49ers have available to them in January and February, should they decide to go that route.
