San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance didn't play a lot in his rookie season. Jimmy Garoppolo was QB1 and Lance essentially just sat behind him and learned as much as possible. Even if he was going to see more snaps, it would've been tough. Lance literally had a broken finger.

Initially, it was thought his big right arm could be wearing down. Instead, it's because the youngster could barely grasp the football properly. Via Sports Illustrated:

“I chipped the bone in my pointer finger, so I had to wait on it. It was super swollen, couldn’t really bend it or straighten it,” Trey Lance said, as he flexed it over the ball. “It [happened] at the Raiders [preseason] game. We had a bye week after the Raiders game, I had a splint on just to try to get it back straight. So it chipped, it kind of stayed bent like this and we just had to keep working. I wore a little brace that kind of … it pushed down on my knuckle and up on both sides of my finger. I just kept wearing it and stretching it as much as I could, scraping it and just trying to get all the scar tissue out of there.”

In a nutshell, Lance was trying to throw with four fingers. You can imagine how difficult that truly is. However, he's now healthy and ready to lead the 49ers back to the playoffs. This is his team now, with Jimmy G likely on his way out, although a trade has yet to materialize due to a shoulder setback.

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There might've been some doubt at the time, but now he is the main man and has already looked good in preseason action. GM John Lynch also couldn't believe how Trey Lance managed to still “get better each and everyday”:

“I was blown away with the way he handled that, finding a way to get out there and get better every day,” said 49ers GM John Lynch. “And it was hard because of that finger, and it wasn’t always pretty. That’s the finger you throw a football with, and he didn’t have that. It was compromised. It led to some bad habits. But he still found a way to get better, to support Jimmy [Garoppolo], to be a great teammate and earn the respect of our guys.”

You need toughness as a QB. Trey Lance clearly has no shortage of it.