We finally got our first glimpse on Sunday of Kyle Shanahan's offense infused with both Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance.
The 49ers' 34-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3 of the preseason was highlighted by the mixing and matching of Garoppolo and Lance with the first-team offense, sometimes even on the same drive.
As the offense marched down the field in the first quarter, the 49ers' two quarterbacks would switch off on certain plays, an indicator as to how coach Kyle Shanahan plans on incorporating the rookie Lance into an offense that will likely be led by Garoppolo out of the gate.
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The preseason is the time to experiment, but once the regular season begins for the 49ers on Sept. 12 in Detroit, how will Shanahan mix in Lance with the offense?
NBC Sports' Chris Simms joined Mike Florio's "Pro Football Talk" on Monday and gave his prediction for how the incorporation will happen during the season.
“He’s a genius in the run game, we know that," Simms said of Shanahan. "I think he’ll take baby steps with all the new Trey Lance stuff. It’ll be just a little infusion of three or four plays this week, and here’s three or four plays the next week, and all of a sudden you get to Week 7 or 8 and you go ‘hey look at this, we have about 25-30 different runs with Trey Lance and things we can do off of it.’ "
One concern surrounding the 49ers' potential desire to incorporate Lance with Garoppolo's offense is that it could be difficult for the offense as a whole to learn, practice, and perform two different styles of the same scheme.
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"I don’t know if it’ll necessarily break things up in terms of continuity, practice, all those things," Simms said. "I think it can be done as long as you’re not trying to go show the world that you have (a ton of) plays with Trey Lance and then go back to that other offense.
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"I think it’ll still be the Shanahan offense we’re accustomed to seeing with a few wrinkles of this Trey Lance/Lamar Jackson-ish type of offense on a week-to-week basis."
One thing is for certain, and it's that the 49ers' offense -- when healthy -- is one of the most exciting schemes in all of football, which is a testament to Shanahan's creativity and coaching ability.
"Shanahan has a creative way of coaching where he can keep it simple and still make it look complex which is why he’s the man and one of the better offensive minds in the sport,” Simms said.