Liar, Liar: "Lance On Fire!"
Seaside Bonus: Trey Lance sucks (for now)
We are living in a time when lying is so pervasive and persuasive that I am just going to start with the film. Trey Lance, the quarterback who the Seattle Seahawks are set to face in Week 2, mixed in a handful of promising throws to wide open receivers with nearly a half-dozen quality running plays during the 49ers’ 19-10 loss to the Bears on Sunday and I can understand any optimism that some San Francisco fans must have because of his potential.
He also—objectively—had at least seven or eight of the worst throws by any quarterback in Week 1.
READ THIS PLEASE: SEAHAWKS-BRONCOS WEEK 1 REACTION AND STOCK UP/STOCK DOWN AFTER STARTING 1-0!
If you watched the entire game, then maybe like me you are confused by the outpouring of praise for Lance and the narrative that San Francisco had much bigger issues at play in Chicago than the quarterback (both the QB and the team can be bad at the same time) who at least ran for a few first downs and put a couple frozen rope completions on his highlight reel.
If you didn’t watch the game or only perused those highlights, you may not even be aware that Lance looked every bit the inexperienced former FCS standout who came into Sunday with only 101 pass attempts since the end of 2019. So I am not just here to tell you what everyone else is afraid to say about Trey Lance…How about I show you?
I can’t give you commentary on Lance’s future in the NFL. Nobody can do that, try as they might to paint a picture of what “will happen” as if learning to read defenses and making the right throws is somehow the easiest part of quarterbacking. But I can give you an honest assessment of how bad the 49ers quarterback was in Week 1, not all of which can be explained by the fact that it rained before the game and late in the fourth quarter in Chicago and most of which should be cause for concern because Lance’s success has only ever been a figment of John Lynch’s imagination.
Whether he becomes great in the future is not for me to tell you. Whether or not he will be one of the worst six starting quarterbacks in the NFL when the Seahawks face the 49ers next Sunday seems like an easier fortune to tell.
Lance finished 13-of-28 with an interception, gaining 164 passing yards, and if you get halfway through this article and think, “Hey, he did make some nice throws, why not show those?” my answer is: Those three or four throws are all over Twitter. Go to Twitter. These are the plays that they don’t want to show you.
Perhaps the Seahawks are in for their own wake-up call at quarterback on Monday night, but this is not about Seattle’s situation. We don’t need to compare Lance to any other quarterback—Geno Smith or Justin Fields or Jimmy Garoppolo—to be able to fairly call him accurate or inaccurate.
He’s just plain inaccurate. Abysmally so.
First quarter, 6:42, 1st and 10 (0-0)
Lance was 2-of-9 on first and 10, gaining 29 yards and one first down. Kyle Shanahan seemed hesitant to give Lance first down passing opportunities until the 49ers were trailing in the second half, and this off-target pass to Ross Dwelley—an easy touchdown if accurate—is a clear example of why.
I have nine other pass attempts that will make this one look Brady-esque, as well as tweets from the media and the masses that are straight up LYING TO YOU.