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There are a lot of things going right for Trey Lance in his first training camp. He’s undeniably talented, progressing in his understanding of the offense, and making highlight reel plays. It hasn’t been perfect though, and there’s one issue in particular the rookie has to iron out.
Lance on Sunday fumbled an exchange with one of his running backs. It wasn’t the first mishandle, and head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters getting that exchange right is something the offense will continue working on.
“It’s both of them. That’s why we’ve got to keep repping it,” Shanahan said of the QB-RB exchange. “I mean, that’s the hard thing about it. That’s why, I mean, when you just dabble in that stuff, you’re going to get turnovers. And our D-Line has seen it a bunch, so they’re trying to play it right and there’s just some give and take between both of them. But yeah, if you’re going to fumble the ball we can’t do it. So we’ve just got to keep repping that. It’s going to take some time.”
Getting Lance to jell with his running backs is going to matter whether he winds up starting or not. Shanahan said Lance is going to play and those run plays where the quarterback is a threat to keep the ball and take off are going to be hallmarks of his entrance into the lineup.
It’s also the kind of seemingly small problem that overshadows all of the flashes of brilliance Lance shows. Until he’s perfected things like these handoffs, his chances of overtaking Garoppolo for the starting job are slim.