Jimmy Garoppolo’s Return To The 49ers Could Mean Bad News For Trey Lance
The 49ers recently signed a new one-year contract over the course of the 2022 NFL season with Jimmy Garoppolo.
“The 49ers and Jimmy Garoppolo agree to a restructured contract worth $6.5 million guaranteed,” the NFL tweeted recently.
This could act as a benefit for the veteran quarterback, but it could have a different effect on Trey Lance.
Even though Garoppolo had already previously said his goodbyes to the team and fans in San Francisco, the team decided that it would be in the best interest of the team to create a new contract in order to keep him on the team.
However for Lance, the addition of keeping Garoppolo on the team adds extra pressure due to him starting as Quarterback 1.
Throughout the offseason, Lance has been struggling as he is heading into his first year on the 49ers as a lead offense player.
During training camp, Lance’s completion rate has been under 30% and during his preseason appearances, he completed a total of 11 out of 16 attempts for 141 yards and only scored one touchdown.
There is a lot of pressure when someone young takes over a starting position on a team. Luckily, there is a small chance that their coach will immediately pull Lance if he makes a bad decision on a play.
Over the course of the 2021 season, both Lance and Garoppolo spoke out about lack of awkwardness between the both of them even though there is a natural hierarchy between the two.
Garoppolo is familiar with leading a team in the NFL whereas Lance is still learning.
“I think we could probably all agree last year that the best quarterback to lead the 49ers was Jimmy Garoppolo. Now, they made the no-questions-asked Trey Lance is the starter, ‘We’re moving on.’ Now it’s not so clear cut that the number one quarterback is the number one quarterback, and the onus is certainly on Trey Lance to prove it every week,” said NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco.
Even before the 49ers have found some controversy within the quarterback.
Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch (players in the NFL) have noticed that Lance is going to have some challenges in the upcoming season, but the 49ers have done all they can to make sure there is a replacement waiting in case he makes a mistake.
In the end, if Lance ends up not being able to meet the expectations that is expected of him, Garoppolo will be called on to take over the position as quarterback.
Nikki Indelicato is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest based in New York. You can reach her at nicole.indelicato@thenationaldigest.com.