Shanahan's advice to Lance about dealing with social media

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As a 22-year-old quarterback entering what's expected to be his first full season as the 49ers' starting quarterback, Trey Lance is a big talking point across the NFL landscape leading up to training camp.

One day, there's a new take or rumor that Lance is looking like an MVP candidate, and the next, rival coaches are relieved San Francisco is moving on from Jimmy Garoppolo.

Lance, who has nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram, does hear at least some of the social media chatter. In the last month, rumors have been floating around that Lance is dealing with arm fatigue that required him to take days off from throwing the football.

49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who is not active on any social media platform, dished out advice to his quarterback on "The TK Show."

"I do get that it’s hard for, especially, a young guy to totally ignore it," Shanahan told The Athletic's Tim Kawakami. "I went out to lunch with Trey and [Brandon Aiyuk]. They were down in San Diego, and me and [general manager John] Lynch met up and had lunch the other day. And BA was just joking about arm fatigue, and I didn’t know what he was talking about. And they were all laughing. They didn’t know I wasn’t laughing."

Aiyuk was referencing his video he posted catching passes from Lance. For the caption, Aiyuk mocked the arm fatigue rumors by writing, "The only three throws from the day, his arm got fatigued after that."

"Finally, [I learn] it’s because BA wrote something about arm fatigue," Shanahan said. "They just assume everyone in the world knows that. And Trey’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t have any.’ And I said, ‘Well you shouldn’t have brought it up, because I didn’t even think you had any. I don’t know what the hell you guys are talking about.’ 

"I don’t know one thing social media could do for me, except maybe I could get a sponsorship and put it on social media and get a few more dollars," Shanahan continued. "To me, it’s just messing with guys’ heads. I don’t want to hear that. I want to focus on the reality of what we think is real."

Deebo Samuel got caught up in offseason drama after reportedly requesting a trade from the 49ers. Soon after, Samuel removed his 49ers profile picture and unfollowed the team account on Instagram, sparking even more rumors about his disgruntled feelings as he waits for a new contract.

RELATED: How Shanahan has been involved in Deebo's contract negotiations

"That’s also what’s hard for guys in negotiations," Shanahan said. "It’s tough sometimes where guys can go sideways because that is the reality for a lot of people. That doesn’t mean that none of it is true, but if you’re going to see a bunch of stuff on there and are mad that I didn’t call you and address it, it’s because I don’t know about it. I don’t know why you’re looking at it either, but I do have to be a little more understanding of that.

"It’s something I haven’t seen help us."

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