After the first week of preseason games, it’s safe to say that the fans were giving Trey Lance a lot more praise than Kyle Shanahan. After the second week of preseason games, Kyle was a happier the day after the game.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Shanahan praised Lance’s determination after some early struggles.
“I just liked how he responded throughout it. Trey hasn’t played a lot of football in the last year or so. I think he’s thrown one interception since high school. To watch him go out there and throw a pick, to have a couple of close, those are some things that he isn’t used to. And I know it got him down pretty bad, but to watch him go out there and recover was nice for me to see because I haven’t seen him have to play through much stuff like that watching all of his college tape. He didn’t throw pick until his one game in the COVID year. So, to be able to see him do that on this stage and to do it out there and be able to leave him out there for a few series and let him kind of fight through that, I really think eventually after that he started getting his best rhythm that he’s been in these two games.”
Beyond that, Kyle also said Lance did a better job of correcting his mistakes during the game (instead of having to see them on film), and of maintaining proper mechanics in the heat of battle.
That last point is especially nice to see after John Lynch mentioned that mistake after the Chiefs game. Mechanical/footwork corrections are the toughest to maintain during actual games, and the fact that Lance improved in that area is a very good sign. Trey’s ability to not make the same mistake twice was mentioned frequently in the lead up to the draft, and it’s nice to see some early evidence of that now that he’s in the pros.
There aren’t a lot of coaches that are tougher on grading their players, especially publicly, than Kyle Shanahan. The fact that he mentioned multiple facets of improvement for Lance after just his second professional game is only going to make 49ers fans continue to salivate in anticipation of his eventual arrival as the starting quarterback.
