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Trey Lance is anything but bitter that Brock Purdy had so much success in taking his place as starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.
As everyone who saw or read about the NFC Championship Game knows, the 49ers’ quarterback situation was a disaster.
The heir apparent to the starting QB job, Trey Lance, lasted less than two games before going down with a season-ending ankle injury against the Seattle Seahawks.
In Week 13, after taking over for Lance, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered his own season-ending foot injury.
That led to Brock Purdy, the 2022 NFL Draft’s Mr. Irrelevant (the last player selected), taking over the reigns.
Somehow, after all of that, San Francisco still managed to finish the season with a very impressive 13-4 record, plus a win in the Wild Card round.
Of course, their enjoyment of that unlikely success was very short-lived when Purdy hurt his throwing arm in the first quarter of the NFC Championship Game and will now need up to a year to recover after tearing his UCL.
So, who will be the 49ers’ starting quarterback in 2023? Will it be Trey Lance? Will Jimmy Garoppolo, who had the best stats (again) of all the team’s quarterbacks come back for one more season in San Francisco?
Kyle Shanahan certainly seems to not want him back.
And what does Trey Lance, who went from the “future of the franchise” to being out-shined by a guy who was taken 259 picks later than him in the NFL Draft?
According to Lance, it’s all good.
“I feel real bad about what happened to Brock, and Josh, as well,” Lance told reporters on Tuesday. “Man, I was so proud of these guys for everything they did throughout the year. They deserve everything they got and more. It’s real unfortunate that it had to end that way.”
Lance even admitted that he could learn a thing or two about playing QB from Purdy.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Lance said. “Brock, he plays the game the right way. That’s why he had so much success. I was just super excited for him. He worked his butt off, all OTAs, since the first day he got here, since the day he got drafted. So he deserved everything he got this year and more. I truly believe that.
“Just tried to help him as much as I could. Learned a lot from him, as well. Just from a human being standpoint, he’s a great person, someone that I see a lot of myself in, so it’s great for me to be able to have a quarterback room like we did throughout the year.”
When asked what impressed him the most about Brock Purdy, Trey Lance replied, “Just how he handled himself. You can talk about throws all day. He can make every throw in the world, and he showed that throughout the year. But just how he handled himself, the way he inserted himself in the offense, the way he was treating other people, really. He treated guys, first day in the building, on practice squad the same as Nick Bosa. So I think that says a lot about him as a person.”
As for what he thinks about his future with the 49ers?
“I’m excited to go out and show what I can do, the same situation that it’s been for me the last two years, and really, my whole life,” Lance said. “Nothing’s really changed. Still the same mindset. I don’t read you guys’ articles, unfortunately for you guys. Sorry. And I know people do. That’s just part of this job, part of the business, but if I’m worried about that stuff. I’ve said it a million times, I just worry about what these guys think in this locker room, what the coaches think, what people in this organization think. Anything outside of that is totally out of my control, so I don’t know why I’d let that have any effect on me.”
He is totally going to be playing for the Tennessee Titans next year, isn’t he?