Trey Lance Out For Season

Dixon Kalhar, Writer

Injuries can have huge impacts on football teams throughout the season. Although it’s a big deal when a well-known player gets hurt, it’s an even bigger one when a team’s starting quarterback is injured. For example, the first season-ending quarterback injury of the season – 49ers’ starter Trey Lance. 

 

Trey Lance played college football for three seasons at North Dakota.  Lance played 19 games for North Dakota, he also never lost a game at North Dakota making his record there 19-0.  He had 2,947 yards and also received the Walter Payton and Jerry Rice Awards as a freshman.  He spent almost all of his rookie season of college as a backup quarterback behind Holden Hotchkiss. 

 

Trey Lance’s injury will affect the 49ers and could put them into a losing streak.  Their current record is 1-2.  In the first game of their NFL season, they lost 10 to 19 to the Chicago Bears.  In their recent game against the Seahawks, he suffered a right ankle fracture after being tackled on a run up the middle that had him carted off the field.  The doctor confirmed it was a season-ending injury.

 

With Lance gone, the 49ers’ former starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, will take his spot.  Jimmy Garoppolo became a 49er in 2019 after a trade with the New England Patriots for a second-round pick in the 2018 NFL draft.   Jimmy Garoppolo took the 49ers to  Super Bowl LIV in 2020, where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, and most recently led the 49ers to the NFC Championship last season, before losing to the eventual Super Bowl Champion, the Los Angeles Rams. The fact that they have made very minor changes to their roster since the last offseason will help Jimmy Garoppolo get used to being back as the starting quarterback.

It was a controversial decision to start Trey Lance over Jimmy Garoppolo.  A large reason the decision has received backlash is Jimmy Garoppolo has been a 49er longer and is considered a trustworthy good player, however,  the 49ers felt Garoppolo gave the team a limited ceiling. Lance, though only a second-year player, had shown promise in the six games he played in during the 2021 season.

 

With quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, and Josh Allen, Jimmy Garroppolo will have to play at a very high level to put the 49ers on track for a deep playoff run or Super Bowl win. If he plays as well as he did in the 2021 season when he had 3,810 yards and 20 touchdowns, the 49ers will become an NFC powerhouse once again.

49ers Head Coach, Kyle Shanahan, confirmed at his Wednesday press conference that Lance will not play until the 2023 season. The 49ers officially placed Lance on Injured Reserve Wednesday, after he had successful surgery on his broken right ankle. The team is hopeful he will make a full recovery and will be back and ready to crush the competition next season.