The Trey Lance trade rumors are heating up following a report saying the San Francisco 49ers have fielded calls from teams on the matter. Between the emergence of Brock Purdy last season and the 49ers' lack of draft capital due to the Christian McCaffrey trade and the initial trade-up to get Lance in the first place, San Francisco could stand to recoup some picks for the QB. If this is truly happening, here are the four best Trey Lance trade destinations.
Trey Lance was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. In his rookie season, he mostly sat behind Jimmy Garoppolo. In year two, the team made Lance the starter, but a season-ending ankle injury put him on the shelf in Week 2.
After an injury to Garoppolo sidelined him as well, the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, Brock Purdy, came in and miraculously led the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game. Jimmy G is now with the Las Vegas Raiders, and although Purdy is recouping from an injury of his own this offseason, “Mr. Irrelevant” is now the San Francisco signal-caller of the future.
This makes Lance expendable and is why the Trey Lance trade rumors are believable.
The four best Trey Lance trade destinations
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tom Brady Era is officially over for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask are the GOAT’s replacements. If that doesn’t instill confidence in a Buccaneers fan, you’re surely not alone.
Tampa Bay (barely) made the playoffs last season, so they have the No. 19 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. That’s likely not high enough to take one of the top four quarterbacks in this year’s class. So, unless the team wants to take a gamble on a player like Hendon Hooker or a later-round QB, Mayfield and Trask will be the QBs this season.
If the Buccaneers had Lance as a top-three pick in 2021, spending a lower-round pick or two on him just two years later would make a lot of sense. This would start a softer rebuild than the one that may happen in Mayfield and/or Trask runs the team into the ground this season.
3. Tennessee Titans
Speaking of soft rebuilds, the Titans are a team trying to retool on the fly without bottoming out. That’s why Tennessee makes so much sense as a Trey Lance trade destination.
The Titans have Ryan Tannehill on the books for one more season, and last year’s fourth-round pick, Malik Willis, didn’t look ready for primetime at all last season. The Titans went so far as to sign a free agent off the street (Joshua Dobbs) to start the crucial last two games of the season over Willis.
Lance hasn’t exactly looked like Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes in his eight NFL appearances. But he is 2-2 as a starter and has shown flashes of NFL starter-level skills before his injury last season.
Coming off his injury, it might be best for Lance to spend one more season as a backup before jumping all the way in as a starter. Or at least having a veteran QB for the start of the 2023 season is probably best. That’s the situation the Titans can offer, which is why it is one of the top Trey Lance trade destinations.
2. Minnesota Vikings
While the Titans offer a situation where Lance can sit for another whole (or part of a) year, the Vikings would almost certainly have Lance on the bench for the entire 2023 season.
Kirk Cousins is the Vikings starter in 2023, but the QB will be 35 this year and is in the final season of his current contract. Minnesota needs to start thinking about their future at QB, especially since they have a generational young talent at wide receiver right now in Justin Jefferson.
The Vikings have been too successful to draft a top-tier replacement for Cousins but not successful enough that they can just rock with Cousins until the wheels fall off. They need a young QB in place soon, and Lance could be the answer.
1. Houston Texans
The best fit for the young 49ers quarterback if these Trey Lance trade rumors are true is with the Houston Texans.
The new Texans coach is former 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, who knows Lance well from the QB’s first two years in the league. Houston desperately needs a franchise QB, and Lance is a much more known quantity to Ryans, and his staff than Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, or Anthony Richardson would be with the No. 2 pick.
Plus, the Texans could then use that No. 2 pick to select the best overall player in the draft to start building their defense with, whether that is Will Anderson Jr. from Alabama or Jalen Carter from Georgia.
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