Trey Lance and Sam Darnold will take first-team reps this offseason

Mar 28, 2023 - 9:21 PM

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It was Kyle Shanahan’s turn to speak at the owner’s meetings Tuesday morning. Let’s start with Brock Purdy. The 49ers won’t have any new updates regarding Purdy until he’s 12 weeks out from surgery.

“He won’t be able to do anything on the field until, who knows. It can be anywhere from six months to eight months. I think we’ll have a better idea...at three months out of surgery, they’ll have a better idea whether it’ll be six months or eight months. That’s how it heals. That’s all I know and I’m good with that.

We’ll see in three months if he’ll be ready for camp. If Brock throws, and he’s a little sore, it might be Week 1. I’m hearing at the latest it might be Week 4. It’s all estimations. We’ll see what happens.”

Here’s Shanahan on why Brock is QB1:

“Brock’s the guy who’s leading that because we’ve seen him play. He’s hurt right now, and I don’t know if we’ll have him Week 1 or training camp. They say in three months, which is two months from now, we’ll have a better idea on where it’s gonna go. So, we’ll see where he’s at.”

“I think it would’ve been pretty easy if Brock was healthy because of the way Brock played last year. He’d be the starter going into it.”

Brock is in good spirits post-surgery, and Kyle said the information they’ve received from the doctors took “a lot of anxiety” off Purdy.

With Purdy sidelined, it’ll be the Trey Lance show. Well, mostly. Shanahan said, “with Brock being hurt, Trey has a chance to regain that [QB1]. Shanahan also confirmed that Lance and Sam Darnold will take first-team reps this offseason:

“I don’t know yet. I mean, I do know. I expect them both to get first-team reps. But I like to see them in Phase I. Then we’ll get them on the field in Phase II. In OTAs, I expect them both to get reps with the first team, but we’ll see how that goes.”

Keep in mind, that doesn’t mean both quarterbacks will split reps on the first team. It could be a scenario where Trey takes eight reps to Sam’s two. We’ll see. Kyle reiterated the team feels the same about Lance as they did last year: “I think Trey’s excited to be healthy, excited to get reps, and show us what he can do.”

Why would the 49ers give Darnold reps with the starters when everyone knows Lance needs all the playing time he can get? Here’s Shanahan describing Darnold:

Sam has as good of a skill set as there is. That’s why he went as the third pick in the draft. When you study his play, you can see it too. He hasn’t always been in the best situations, which is tough for quarterbacks.

“Sam has played. He’s done some really good things in this league. He’s won a ton of games. He’s been thrown into some situations where you’re gonna keep both teams in the game because you gotta keep slinging the ball. So, he won’t always have the best stats, but you see the ability. He’s always had the ability since his first year in college.

There’s no reason he can’t do this. I’m excited to get to know him as a person. I’ve always liked him as an athlete. I’ve always liked him as a prospect. I like how he throws. I like his athletic ability.”

If you’ve watched Darnold at any stop, you can see the same things Kyle does. There’s a player who can push the ball down the field, win after the initial play breaks down, and make some of the best throws you’ll see.

Question marks surrounding Purdy’s injury turned out to be a significant reason why the 49ers brought in Darnold.

Shanahan spoke about the importance of having a quarterback on a rookie contract, and how it’s enabled the 49ers to retain the talent they’ve drafted as well as sign high-priced free agents such as Charvarius Ward and Javon Hargrave.

“And that’s why we went for Trey. It’s scary when you do that, and a guy gets hurt. And that’s why I feel very fortunate that we hit on a 7th round pick, too. We didn’t expect Brock to be in that situation.

But he was, and the level he played at, yeah, we were planning on it being Trey. And we did get that from Brock. It doesn’t mean it can’t be Trey going forward, but that was the whole goal. To get a quarterback on a rookie deal who could play at a high enough level that we could win with.”

What does Shanahan have to see from Trey this offseason? You guessed it. Health: “I just want to see him get healthy and start taking reps. All of the reps he got last year in training camp.”

Kyle explained how he’s hoping Trey picks up where he left off after rehabbing from a gruesome injury. For Shanahan’s entire presser, you can watch the video below:

The audio isn’t great since we were in a room with every other NFC head coach and media member.