The jury might still be out on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance, but Marcus Spears of ESPN has already deemed the trade that the Niners made to move up to the No. 3 spot and get the QB in the 2021 NFL Draft an utter failure.

“Look, they've got a terrible situation on their hands with Trey Lance,” Spears said on ESPN's First Take. “This may go down as one of the worst trades in the draft in the history of the NFL. The fortunate part is Kyle Shanahan has done such a phenomenal job of getting this team ready to play and being so creative offensively that it hasn't shown in the win-loss column. But you lost a lot by going up and getting Trey Lance.”

Lance is entering his third year in the NFL but still has plenty of questions surrounding him. He was supposed to answer most of them in 2022 when he was named the starter for the 49ers, but he suffered a devastating season-ending injury in just the second week of the campaign against the Seattle Seahawks. His injury paved the way for the return to a starting role for Jimmy Garoppolo, whose injury then opened the door for Brock Purdy–who is now the top quarterback in San Francisco.

With Purdy winning the confidence of Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers, Lance is left battling for the QB2 role on the team against Sam Darnold. So long as Purdy is doing well on the field and healthy this year, it's hard to imagine a scenario where Lance will get a regular starting gig on the team again.