More Bad News Arises For Trade Candidate

A Trey Lance trade is becoming more and more likely with every passing day. The quarterback suffered a season-ending ankle injury in 2022 after just two games, but apparently, that wasn’t even his biggest setback with the 49ers. According to a recent interview with Kyle Shanahan, the former third-overall pick also suffered a hairline finger fracture that forced Lance to change the way he threw the football.

Trey Lance Trade Becomes More Likely After Recent Report

What Kyle Shanahan Said

According to Shanahan, Lance first suffered his finger injury in the 2021 preseason and it didn’t heal properly in the 2022 offseason. Because of this, Lance “spent a whole year throwing without a bent finger, which changed everything.” Shanahan went on to praise Lance for never complaining about the injury and “try[ing] to adjust so he could be out there.”

Obviously, this isn’t ideal, as we now know that Lance has suffered two significant, long-lasting injuries while making a whopping four starts in the league. Still, injuries can just be due to bad luck, and Shanahan added that the former third-round pick is fully recovered from both his finger and ankle injuries and that this version of Lance is “the best that we’ve [seen] right now.” Hopefully this is true, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard a player coming back from injury is in ‘the best shape of his life’ in the offseason.

Shanahan’s comments didn’t end there, however. The longtime head coach confirmed that Brock Purdy is locked in as the starter, and from the sound of it, Lance won’t have a chance to win the job unless Purdy’s elbow injury prevents him from seeing the field.

“I understand the unusual circumstances of when you trade up for a quarterback with the third pick in the draft and how you’re expecting him to be the man for a long time…[y]ou’re also not expecting the last pick in the draft [Purdy] to come in and play at that level…When you talk about, ‘What does that say about Trey?’ I think it’s so unfair to Trey. What it does say is what Brock did in his eight games. And what Brock did was really damn good.”

Shanahan continues to say that “I believe [Lance] would have gotten to a level where he did similar stuff [to Purdy]. He missed that. Brock came in and did it. Now I truly believe Trey can go do that. But Brock’s already done it. And that’s a very good thing for us to have.”