Category: 49ers

Secret Superstars for Week 2 of the 2022 NFL season

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar points out the NFL’s great performances by unheralded players in his weekly Secret Superstars team.

There are all kinds of reasons that NFL players are underrated.

Perhaps they’re in systems that don’t best show their skills. Maybe they’re buried on a depth chart. Or, they’re in somebody’s doghouse, and their coaches can’t see their potential. Sometimes, young players haven’t quite put it all together, but there are enough flashes to make you sit up and take notice, and when it does work, it’s all good.

Week 1 of the 2022 regular season features players at every position who showed up and showed out despite their underrated statuses, and here at Touchdown Wire, it’s our job to point them out.

Here are the Secret Superstars for Week 2 of the 2022 NFL season.

Trey Lance takes to social media to say ankle surgery was successful

Trey Lance has undergone successful surgery on his right ankle

Trey Lance suffered a season-ending injury to his right ankle in the San Francisco 49ers’ win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

The second-year quarterback had surgery to repair the damage Monday and afterward took to social media with a positive message.

The 49ers provided more detail:

Jimmy Garoppolo replaced Lance against the Seahawks and will start at quarterback for San Francisco going forward. He’s going to make big bucks in that role.

49ers quarterback Trey Lance officially out for rest of season with ankle injury

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance has been officially ruled out for the rest of the 2022 season with an ankle injury.

The San Francisco 49ers did two things this offseason that could have backfired on them. But as it turns out, one of those things might save the other. In their 27-7 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, the 49ers lost starting quarterback Trey Lance for the remainder of the season with a fractured ankle.

The team made it official after the game.

The injury happened with 2:33 left in the first quarter. Lance ran to the right guard gap and went down awkwardly after a two-yard run. He was carted off the field.

Then, Jimmy Garoppolo, the now-backup quarterback who recently agreed to a restructured contract, came in and led the team pretty credibly, completing 13 of 21 passes for 154 yards and a touchdown. The 49ers will obviously miss Lance’s impressive upside, and they’ll be limited by Garoppolo’s low ceiling, but at least they’re not in quarterback disaster mode after Lance’s injury. Purgatory, perhaps.

Jimmy Garoppolo throws TD pass after replacing injured Trey Lance

Jimmy Garoppolo came off the bench and was on target for the 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers’ decision to keep Jimmy Garoppolo as a backup has proven brilliant.

Trey Lance was carted off with a right ankle injury in the first quarter of Sunday’s game with the Seattle Seahawks.

On came the veteran Garoppolo and he completed his first four passes, one going for a touchdown.

George Kittle was out, too, so Garoppolo went to Ross Dwelley on a play that was good for 38 yards and gave San Francisco a 13-0 lead early in the second quarter.

49ers QB Trey Lance carted off field with right ankle injury

Trey Lance of the 49ers has been carted off the field in the first quarter with a right-ankle injury

The debate over who should be the quarterback in San Francisco took a sad and sudden turn in the first quarter of the 49ers’ game with the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

Trey Lance was injured on a play and had to be carted off the field.

The starting quarterback had his right leg in an air cast.

Jimmy Garoppolo came on for the 49ers with Lance having been declared out for the rest of the game … at least.

Classy tweet from Seahawks’ social media team.

 

Touchdown Wire’s 2022 NFL season predictions

Doug Farrar, Laurie Fitzpatrick, and Luke Easterling fill out Touchdown Wire’s predictions for the 2022 NFL season.

Everybody does predictions before the start of every season in every sport, and of course, we who blather on about the NFL are no exception. Last year, Doug Farrar, Laurie Fitzpatrick, and Mark Schofield filled out the Touchdown Wire predictions sheet, and while the predictions made sense, we all whiffed on a few things — most notably, the Super Bowl teams.

Now, with Mark off to pastures anew (see you ’round, old friend), we’ve enlisted Luke Easterling, the shot-caller for both Bucs Wire and Draft Wire, and an estimable football mind in his own right. Luke and Doug also host the weekly “4-Down Territory” video, which you should definitely check out.

With all that said, let’s get to the predictions. Here’s how we see the 2022 NFL season shaking out — from division winners to Super Bowl champion to a plethora of individual awards.

Trey Lance is fine not being a team captain: ‘I voted for every single one of those guys’

49ers starting quarterback Trey Lance was not named a team captain, but it doesn’t seem to bother him at all.

Trey Lance may be the San Francisco 49ers’ starting quarterback in 2022 — head coach Kyle Shanahan has made no bones about that — but if Lance, the second-year man from North Dakota State, wants to be a team captain, he’ll have to earn it. Because as much as it’s common to make your starting quarterback a captain, that didn’t happen when the 49ers announced theirs on Wednesday.

The list of captains, per our friends at Niners Wire, is fairly formidable.

DL Arik Armstead
DE Nick Bosa
TE George Kittle
FS Jimmie Ward
LB Fred Warner
LT Trent Williams

“I just didn’t want to put seven on there,” Shanahan said of Lance’s omission. “Deebo (Samuel) was eight. … We just wanted to go with six. They don’t allow eight to the coin toss, I don’t believe. It’s also his first year of starting for us. There’s not many rookies who end up being the captains. I know this is his second year, but he’s a rookie for us in terms of this is his first time being our starting quarterback.”

If Lance was upset by it, he certainly didn’t let on.

“Obviously, that’s a goal of mine, but I don’t think you can look at any six of those guys and be like, ‘That guy’s a bozo,’ because those guys have played football at a very, very high level. So yeah, the situations are different. I voted for every single one of those guys, so I think each and every one of them deserves it. But yeah, it’s definitely a goal of mine moving forward. But those guys have all proved it, and that’s what this league is all about.”

No bozos, indeed, and if the 49ers were to name a seventh team captain, I think we can all agree that Deebo Samuel would be the better choice at this point. For Lance, Job 1 is to overcome an iffy preseason to define his new role as the marquee guy on the roster of a potential Super Bowl contender, captain or not.

49ers quarterback Trey Lance’s 2022 preseason was a bit of a mixed bag

That process gets underway on Sunday when the 49ers take on the Bears at Soldier Field.

The biggest question for every NFL team in the 2022 season

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar asks — and tries to answer — the most pressing questions for every NFL team as the 2022 season begins.

No matter how great any team is, every team has its share of questions to answer when a new season begins. The 1968 Baltimore Colts looked unbeatable until they met the New York Jets in Super Bowl III, and Jets running back Matt Snell exploited the weak right side of Baltimore’s defensive front over and over on the way to one of the greatest upsets in sports history. The 2007 New England Patriots were unbeatable until they lost to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII because their interior offensive line couldn’t handle the Giants’ NASCAR pressure packages.

No matter how great your team is, one little thing can turn everything upside down.

Conversely, teams that may look hopeless are actually building credibly to the future, and that will show up on the field more than anybody might think. And then there are the NFL’s stragglers — the teams for whom there is little present hope, and the primary question is, “How do we transcend our multiple weaknesses to be at least competitive?”

Each of the NFL’s 32 teams have questions to answer coming into the 2022 season, which of course is right around the corner. So here, for your consideration, are the most pressing questions every NFL team will — and must — answer in the new season.

Where the NFL’s rookie quarterbacks have shined, and where they need to improve

Mark Schofield takes stock of the rookie quarterback class, showing what they have done well, and where they can still improve.

A common theme emerged last spring.

This was a bad class of rookie quarterbacks.

Perhaps that view has shifted. Over the past few weeks we have seen the rookie passers take the field, and in many instances, they have outperformed expectations. Kenny Pickett is pushing for the starting job in Pittsburgh, Malik Willis’ game seems to translate well to the NFL, Desmond Ridder seems ready to handle the starting role in Atlanta, and Sam Howell is pushing Carson Wentz in Washington.

Even players who went in later rounds — or even undrafted — are making strong cases for roster spots.

Let’s dive into the rookie passers who have seen significant playing time this preseason and highlight what they have done well, and where they can still improve.

Carolina fans, unfortunately Matt Corral, who was lost for the season with a Lisfranc injury, is not part of the analysis here due to his limited action.

49ers quarterback Trey Lance’s 2022 preseason was a bit of a mixed bag

49ers quarterback Trey Lance had an up-and-down preseason as the starting quarterback. What will that mean in the regular season?

As one might expect, Trey Lance’s first NFL preseason as the San Francisco 49ers’ named starting quarterback had its highs and lows.

Against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1 of the preseason, Lance completed 4 of 5 passes for 92 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and the highest-possible passer rating of 158.3. Nice start. Lance didn’t play last week against the Vikings, but he got a lot of reps in San Francisco’s preseason finale Thursday night against the Houston Texans. And in that 17-0 loss, he completed 7 of 11 passes for 49 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 73.7.

Overall, head coach Kyle Shanahan was Not Amused.

“It was pretty rough,” Shanahan said after the Texans game. “Didn’t play clean at all. I think we struggled to stop the run on that first drive, which was tough. When we did play good defense, I thought we had a couple bad penalties, kept them on the field. Offensively, just way too many penalties. I think offense especially, but it was also defense and special teams. And then I just thought we struggled to execute. I thought it was pretty sloppy play, and I wish it could have been cleaner.”

More specifically regarding the offense against the Texans, San Francisco was rolling with a relatively inexperienced offensive line, and it showed. Lance was under pressure and driven from the pocket more than anybody would like in a preseason game, and that was evident on tape. Shanahan sat Trent Williams, the NFL’s best offensive tackle, and right tackle Mike McGlinchey has been out since the second half of last season with a quadriceps injury.

“It’s been sporadic each week, so hopefully we’ll get Trent back, hopefully we’ll get McGlinchey back,” the coach said. “We’ve been mixing these young guys in there, so it’s been good for them to get a lot of reps. You always want more, but we’ve got 17 days to week one, so hopefully we’ll get some guys back. If you don’t, got keep working on the continuity throughout the year.”

As for Lance, Shanahan didn’t like what he saw, but he wasn’t about make it a big deal — just yet.

“I wish it was cleaner just from a whole, but I’m not going to make too much of it. We wanted him to get just two drives. I ended up giving him three because I wanted to give him a little bit more there, but there weren’t too many opportunities, and we got into some long down distances, which made it tough.”

Part of Lance’s problem was that the Texans’ defense played really well. They matched Lance’s receivers, created consistent pressure, and presented him with a lot of different coverage looks.

“There were some ups and downs for sure,” Lance concluded. “It never feels good to lose, but we will learn from it and turn the page. We’re not going to make a bigger deal out of it than we need to for sure. Yeah, like I said, it never feels good to lose. There was some ugly stuff out there for sure. Man, it definitely wasn’t our best night, but like I said, we’re not going to make too big of a deal out of it. We’ll watch the tape tomorrow, learn from it and get better.”

We’re watching the tape now, and here’s what we saw regarding Lance’s readiness for the regular season. The 49ers open the regular season against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday, September 11, so time is of the essence, and there are things to correct.