After months of speculation, the San Francisco 49ers finally traded Trey Lance. The former third-overall pick QB was traded to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a fourth-round pick. It was a bit of a surprising move, considering what San Francisco gave up to draft him in the first place. It had fans questioning what San Francisco was doing.
After the trade was completed, 49ers GM John Lynch talked about the trade and what exactly happened there, per David Lombardi. Lynch said that San Francisco took a shot in trading for the third pick, but it unfortunately didn't pan out.
John Lynch on Trey Lance trade: “We took a shot and it didn’t work out. We own that. We take accountability for it.”
Tom Pelissero shared more of Lynch's thoughts on the trade here.
#49ers GM John Lynch spoke about the Trey Lance trade to Dallas on the team’s preseason broadcast: “(I)t wasn’t for lack of effort on Trey’s part or on our part, that it didn’t work. Circumstances took hold and he struggled through injuries and this team's ready to win.”
Even coming out of college, Lance was always going to be a bit of a project. The former 49ers quarterback had a cannon arm and had all the talent, but he needed help in terms of reading the defense. However, injuries completely derailed his ability to learn and improve under Kyle Shanahan. An awful preseason performance and Brock Purdy's emergence last season all but cemented his exit from the 49ers.
San Francisco will now move forward with Purdy as their starting QB and Sam Darnold as their backup. As for Lance, it's unclear what his path forward is going to be. Dallas has an established quarterback in Dak Prescott, and he hasn't shown any signs of a decline. This experiment has gone awry, and it will be interesting to see how both parties recover from this.