The 49ers ponied up a significant amount of future draft capital in order to trade up to the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and appear to have eyes on that selection, Trey Lance, eventually taking over as the franchise quarterback.
Lance isn't immediately set to replace Jimmy Garoppolo as the 49ers' franchise quarterback, as coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday that there currently is no QB competition in the organization.
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"Jimmy is definitely our starter right now, and right now there isn't a competition because I don't believe Trey would be in a position to compete," Shanahan told Rich Eisen on Peacock. "Jimmy is too good of a player, he's got too good of a grasp of our offense, he'll start out OTAs running like he's done before and he'll be the starting quarterback.
"I just see Trey coming in here trying to learn everything, trying to learn his teammates, and we'll just see how it goes. I'm not going to sit here and say I'll never play a rookie quarterback and I'm not going to sit here and say I will play him, that's kinda up to him. When he's ready to compete, which, that doesn't mean he tells me and doesn't mean I tell him, we'll all see it."
Lance is less than a week away from his 21st birthday, and only had 318 passing attempts during his tenure at North Dakota State. For comparison, Mac Jones had 311 passing attempts in the 2020 season alone.
RELATED: What Shanahan told Lynch after first seeing Lance's film
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Garoppolo has played relatively well when he's been 100 percent healthy, as the only NFL season he has started all 16 games in culminated with a 13-3 regular-season record and an appearance in Super Bowl LIV.
Shanahan and the 49ers clearly believe in the long-term potential of Lance in the NFL, otherwise they would not have sent such a steep haul of draft picks to the Miami Dolphins in order to get the third overall pick.
But the 49ers still have supreme confidence in a healthy Garoppolo, and will keep him in the lineup for as long as they feel he is the better player in Shanahan's offense.
As Shanahan said, Lance will get his chance when he is ready.
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