Kyle Shanahan had to be making a little bit of a joke when he intimated to MMQB’s Albert Breer that he’s open to the idea of a two-quarterback system.
When Shanahan stated plainly that Lance would play in his rookie year whether he won the starting job or not, it didn’t generate a huge wave since he’d already hinted early in camp that he’d be open to the idea of utilizing Lance in specific packages. He furthered that notion during the second set of training camp practices when Lance took a rep for a running play behind the starting offensive line.
Lance jumping in for a couple plays a game to throw a wrinkle at the defense isn’t revolutionary or surprising. Teams have used an athletic quarterback or a running back or a receiver to take snaps before. The 49ers head coach went a step further in his discussion with Breer though and opened the idea of not necessarily naming a starter and going with a two-quarterback system.
Here’s the full excerpt from Breer’s deep dive on the 49ers’ QB situation:
“I think I can ride it out week-in and week-out, personally,” he says. “I think our guys trust us to make the right decision. It’s cool being in a building where no one has an agenda, whether it’s me, the GM, the owner. Everyone’s on the same page, there’s no pressure—Hey, you have to do this or You have to do that. And our players know that too, that’s what’s great about our place here. When players know you’re on the same page with the personnel department, with the owner, then they don’t really care. They just want to win.
“And I think when this is all said and done, there’s gonna be two guys they believe will help us win and I think they’ll trust us to make that decision, whether it’s permanently, for one game, for a series or just a situation. We gotta balance that out right, though. It’s tough to do, but it is as easy as ‘How do you win the game?’”
Which is to say, yes, Shanahan would feel comfortable playing matchup ball with his QBs.
“Yeah, I do,” he continued. “And the hardest thing is articulating it to you guys. Which I get. But I really try to keep as simple as what gives us the best chance right now to win. And I think our players trust that I’m like that. I think our quarterbacks trust that I’m like that. You can disagree, but it’s hard to take it personally when it’s like that. I hope we’ve got the right guys, the right team, and if they both keep getting better; it should be a good problem for me.”
The old football adage “when you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks” doesn’t always apply, but it sure feels like it does in this situation.
Let’s go to the world where Shanahan alternates between his starting quarterback based on the week, and the snaps are split closer to 50-50 than 98-2.
This isn’t like they had a franchise quarterback they believed in and then ran into a diamond in the rough late in the draft that threw a wrench into their plans. The 49ers traded three first-round picks to move up and pick Lance. Either he’s ready to start or he’s not. If he’s good enough to start and win against one team one week, the No. 3 overall pick who was invested in so heavily should also be good enough to start and win against every team every week.
A revolving door under center is less an indication of extreme faith in two quarterbacks than it is little faith in both players.
The logic tracks for using Lance in special packages should Garoppolo ultimately hold onto the starting job. He can help the team win as a bit player in 2021.
The logic of deeming him ready to start but only sometimes doesn’t fit anywhere on the table of ways to manage an NFL team with Super Bowl hopes.
In theory, two different quarterbacks with two different skill sets that effectively operate two different offenses would make it hard to game plan for a team. Shanahan has made his career off of being a brilliant offensive mind, but there are limits to how far he can bend and twist convention without irreparably damaging his club’s chances to win.
A coach puts himself in an impossible situation by following the two-QB model. Suddenly every game gets whittled down to the quarterback play, and the already most scrutinized position on the field comes under an even larger microscope. The margin for error becomes slim for both signal callers, it forces the locker room to split, and it puts a target on the head coach for trying something universally believed to be a losing strategy.
There are zero documented examples of a Super Bowl winning team rolling with two quarterbacks. Backups have led their teams to championships, but that’s different than a different QB playing each week. Shanahan, who’s often on the cutting edge of offensive football, would have an exceedingly difficult time selling this idea should he contribute to move forward with it.
Perhaps Shanahan is simply trying to buoy Garoppolo’s trade value by highlighting his importance to the team. Maybe he’s starting to lean toward Lance being the starter but he’s not ready to commit to that yet, so he sat on the fence instead.
That would be significant considering how mum he’s been on the idea of Lance starting at all. Toying with the notion at least indicates there’s some part of the head coach that wants to see what Lance can do as the QB1.
If that side of the head coach ultimately wins out, then Lance should get the full season, or at least until he gives a reason to believe the team can’t win with him. The same goes for Garoppolo. There can be uncertainty about the starting quarterback situation in early August, but that uncertainty has to be eliminated by the time the regular season starts.