Trey Lance should have been one of the captains of the San Francisco 49ers. Except that he's not. This was after head coach Kyle Shanahan decided not to name him a captain despite the fact that the 22-year-old earned enough votes from his teammates.

Shanahan, who for some reason opted to cut down the Niners captains from eight to six ahead of the new season, spoke out on his decision. Ultimately, it's the coach who has the final say on team captaincy, and clearly, he didn't think Lance deserved to wear the “C” on his shirt (via Mike Florio of PFT):

“I always get the final tally and I could cheat if I wanted to,” Shanahan told reporters. “I actually didn’t at all. I agreed with all their choices and I just made the decision not to have eight of them.”

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Shanahan no longer explained his rationale behind this rather bizarre decision. After all, he has no obligation to do so. However, it has sparked a bit of controversy.

Does Kyle Shanahan still have doubts about Lance's ability to lead the charge as the Niners QB1 for the entire year? If he were to name him captain, it could prove problematic if Shanahan ends up replacing Trey Lance with Jimmy Garoppolo as the starting quarterback somewhere down the line. This is under the assumption that Lance is unable to live up to the lofty expectations the team has of him in his second season in the NFL. Could this be where Shanahan's hesitations lie?