The 49ers are peeing on your leg and trying to convince you that it's rain.
On Monday, the MMQB's Albert Breer told Colin Cowherd why we keep hearing so much about Sam Darnold as the number 2 QB over Trey Lance.
Well, that's an incredible work of fiction. Unfortunately it just doesn't line up with what actually happened or make any kind of logical sense. Allow me to break this down piece by piece.
The 49ers were going to live with Lance's growing pains last year
That is flat out fiction. The 49ers weren't going to live with Trey Lance's mistakes last year. We know they weren't because they brought back Jimmy Garoppolo less than two weeks before the year began.
If you're going to sacrifice a season on the altar of Trey Lance's development, you don't bring back a beloved quarterback just before the games are set to begin. What would be the point? You don't create a quarterback controversy if you're truly willing to ride or die with Trey Lance. As I said at the time, you don't bring a parachute unless you think you might have to jump out of the plane during the trip.
Just think of it. The 49ers offense is struggling to score. The team begins the year 3-4. They're coming off two straight losses to the Falcons and Chiefs with the Rams coming up next. Kyle Shanahan is really going to watch a season of the so-called "Super Bowl Window" go down the drain while a QB he's gone to the Super Bowl with sits on the bench? Bullshit.
Tim Kawakami of the The Athletic reported that there was already "tension" with the Lance situation following the loss to the Bears in the Week 1 monsoon. If things were already at that point after a single game played in a Biblical flood, how do you think they would have been after a 3-4 start? The players themselves would have been demanding a quarterback change.
They can't throw a season overboard in the name of Trey Lance's development
Why is it just assumed that the 49ers would lose during Trey Lance's first year as a starter? Rookie Ben Roethlisberger went to the AFC Championship Game with the Steelers in 2004. Mark Sanchez did the same thing as a rookie with the Jets in 2009. Then he did it again the following year. Is it so inconceivable that Lance could have that kind of success if given a chance to play?
What made the 49ers an attractive spot for a rookie QB was the playmakers on offense, the mind of Kyle Shanahan, and the league's best defense. Even with all of that around Lance the 49ers still believe the team wouldn't be able to contend with him under center? And they know all of this based on some practices and four career starts?
Sam Darnold is better suited to keep this team afloat for a short period of time
As far as I can tell, this idea is based on the fact that Darnold has more experience in the league than Lance does. But it also ignores the fact that Darnold's experience in the league has been bad. And not just bad, really bad.
Since he was drafted, Sam Darnold has the 6th most interceptions in the NFL with 55. The five QBs ahead of him have played an average of 76 games. Darnold has played in 56. He also has the lowest QB rating in the league since being drafted at 78.2. There are more stats to support his struggles, but you get the point.
Despite all of those issues, however, Kyle Shanahan apparently thinks he can fix Sam Darnold. Why doesn't he think he can work that same magic with Trey Lance?
None of this is to pick on Breer, by the way. He is relaying what he's heard from his 49ers sources. And he's far from the only national insider to parrot some of these obviously false justifications coming from the 49ers. Just make sure you seem them for what they are: Pure bullshit.
From the second Darnold signed the 49ers have been greasing the skids for him to be QB2 behind Brock Purdy. It's why he was brought in on the first day of the legal tampering period, and it's why all the insiders have been pumping him up during minicamp. The next thing that will happen is the team will give the QB2 job to Sam coming out of training camp. Then they'll trade Lance before the year begins or bury him on the depth chart.
A sad end of a sorry episode.
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