Nobody really knows which of the QBs the 49ers will pick at 3, but it hasn’t stopped the chatter. We’ve heard Mac Jones and Justin Fields thrown around as the top options, but are there actually signs that point in the direction that it’s going to be Trey Lance?
As was reported a few days ago from what we heard from private QB coach John Beck, he started working with Trey Lance a few weeks ago. This is significant as Beck is very close with Kyle Shanahan and the two talk often. The time in which Lance began working with Beck goes right along with the time the 49ers traded up. And Lance went to Beck under the request of Shanahan himself, which is a pretty big deal. Shanahan clearly has a vested interest in Lance to personally send him to Beck.
The public reason for doing this is to get him ready for the second pro day the 49ers were setting up. While plausible, it’s strange to do all of that just to get a guy set up and ready for a pro day. That’s way too abnormal. Pro days aren’t going to sway the decision of a team enough to warrant taking a month to get ready for it. This is also a double edge sword in the way that if Shanahan sent him there for that reason and the pro days were really an American Idol-like audition, Shanahan rigged it in Lance’s favor anyways.
And getting extra work in with Lance before drafting him would make sense. Couldn’t do it prior to moving up to 3 as they couldn’t guarantee they’d get him, but now they can certainly if he’s the guy. That could why he started working with Beck conveniently when the trade was made. Lance is very talented but is also very raw and a lot of him is a mystery. If they identified him as the favorite when they made the trade, getting him work with Beck to get him a head start on developing into a pro player for them as well as gathering more intel than other teams have on him would be the ideal situation. It makes a lot of sense to do this, especially for a prospect like Lance.
The last things are in the pro day itself, and not necessarily how he did, but rather some other things.
The first of which is this pro day was much more private and silent than the other two for Fields and Jones. There were only a select few pieces of media to come out of it and we don’t see the 49ers brass in attendance at all. It’s been rumored the 49ers asked to not be in any of the media posted and/or they asked for limited media to get out of it overall. No confirmation that was the case, but the evidence points to that being exactly it. For an organization that works in silence, this is a pretty big deal.
The second thing is a weird one but it’s pretty unique and interesting. The receiver working on this pro day catching Lance’s throws was none other than Jordan Matthews. Matthews had been on and off the 49ers a ton the last couple seasons. He knows the ins and outs of the Shanahan route concepts and all of that. Fields and Jones threw to guys who didn’t. Lance’s pro day was the closest simulation to a portion of a 49ers practice that you’ll get without it being an actual practice. NDSU is actually playing their season now so none of their receivers were available, but it’s still strange that out of all people, they tabbed Jordan Matthews to do it. It’s not nothing.
The other thing is that it’s honestly interesting that Lance’s pro day was their last one. Pro days can be a trap sometimes as recency bias is a problem and getting swept up in them is easy. So it would make sense to do the one for the guy you actually want to take last in order to avoid that issue. There’d be no way of watching Fields or Jones after Lance and then start to overthink it by second-guessing. Could easily be a trap they were trying to avoid.
There are a growing amount of signs that now point to Trey Lance being the pick and it’s very convincing, I won’t lie. There are still signs out there that could point to Fields though. I personally think it’s one of those two. You can make an argument for either, but right now it’s looking strong for Lance when you put it all together.
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