As of right now, Trey Lance is the 49ers' quarterback of the future. And while he's recovering from a broken ankle, San Francisco still has high hopes for the former No. 3 overall pick.
But ESPN's Bill Barnwell wonders if the 49ers could use Lance as trade bait to recoup some of the draft picks they dealt away to acquire Christian McCaffrey last week.
Barnwell threw out a scenario where current starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo plays well enough the rest of this season to earn a new contract with the 49ers next year, opening the door for Lance to be traded.
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"In this scenario, which would probably require a deep playoff run and excellent work on the offense, the Niners would re-sign Garoppolo to an extension this offseason," Barnwell wrote. "Lance still probably would net a late first-round pick or early second-round pick in return. I will admit the trade I keep coming back to -- given Atlanta's desire to run the ball and [Kyle] Shanahan's stockpiling of positionless playmakers -- is a swap of Lance for tight end Kyle Pitts. I'm not sure that solves the draft capital problem, but it's fun to argue about.
"This is more of a hypothetical than anything else, and the Niners could use a player such as [Brandon] Aiyuk in trade to replenish their draft capital instead. Either way, given how much they've shipped off, it's important for the 49ers to try to get an additional draft pick or two this offseason."
At the moment, the 49ers don't have their first- or second-round draft picks in 2023. They traded one of their third-round picks, but still have two compensatory third-round picks. They also don't have their fourth-round pick, which was included in the McCaffrey trade with the Carolina Panthers. San Francisco has their fifth- and seventh-round picks, but the Houston Texans own their sixth-round pick from the Charles Omenihu trade. The 49ers have an extra seventh-round pick acquired from the Denver Broncos in the Jonas Griffin trade.
In total, the 49ers have five draft picks next year, all in the third round or later.
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers invested heavily in Lance, trading their 2021, 2022 and 2023 first-round picks and a 2022 third-round pick to the Miami Dolphins in order to move up from No. 12 to No. 3 to select the North Dakota State star.
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It's unlikely Shanahan and general manager John Lynch would be willing to move from Lance -- or Aiyuk for that matter -- so quickly, but anything is possible.