Tag: trey lance trade

Can Trey Lance trade inform when Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams contract talks end?

The Trey Lance trade provides a good blueprint for when the Brandon Aiyuk and Trent Williams contract situations can be resolved.

The San Francisco 49ers are familiar with looming unsettled offseason moves this late in the preseason.

Last year as the final preseason game approached, the 49ers had defensive end Nick Bosa’s contract still unfinished and a mess to clean up in their quarterback room as the battle for the backup job waged between Trey Lance and Sam Darnold.

This year it’s wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s hold-in and left tackle Trent Williams’ holdout that still need to be resolved.

Bosa’s holdout went beyond the preseason. He didn’t return to the field until practice began the Wednesday before Week 1 of the regular season. Perhaps that’ll be the case for one of either Williams or Aiyuk.

However, the 49ers may not want to let anything linger that long again. They don’t have the wiggle room to have two of their top offensive players behind the curve when they take the field Week 1 against the New York Jets. It’s hard to imagine both Aiyuk and Williams playing at a high level with only three days of practice under their belts.

Instead, we’ll look at the Lance situation which ended with the QB getting traded to the Dallas Cowboys on August 25 — the same day of their preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers. Getting that in before final cuts helped the 49ers’ decision-making when it came to whittling down their roster. There’s no such choice with Aiyuk and Williams, but their presence would change the calculus on how the rest of their position groups get filled out.

This year the 49ers wrap up their preseason slate against the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday, Aug. 23. That may be, and perhaps should be, when the Aiyuk and Williams situations ultimately get resolved.

A nice Friday news dump just ahead of their preseason finale would help offset some of the bad vibes lingering by the prolonged contract talks of the two All-Pros. That would also give Aiyuk and Williams nearly two weeks to ramp up with bonus practices in the week before the regular season, and then a full week of regular-season practices before getting suited up for the opener on Sept. 9.

That still may not be enough time to get both players playing at the highest level after missing all of the offseason program and training camp, but it should give them enough of a foundation to at least be serviceable when the regular-season begins.

Training camp was the original soft deadline and nothing happened then. Now we’re going to circle the final preseason game as another soft deadline since final cuts take place a few days later on Aug. 27. If there’s no resolution by then, things really step into the realm of outcomes where the Williams and Aiyuk contract talks could have a real impact on the regular season.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Kyle Shanahan explains why 49ers traded Trey Lance to Cowboys

Kyle Shanahan talked about why the #49ers traded Trey Lance:

Kyle Shanahan on Friday after the 49ers wrapped up their preseason with a loss to the Chargers took the podium for his postgame press conference.

The first question wasn’t about the game, and instead about the team’s trade of quarterback Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys for a fourth-round pick in the 2024 draft. News of the trade came down just a few hours before the team’s kickoff against the Chargers at Levi’s Stadium.

Shanahan gave some insight into why the team opted to deal Lance instead of keeping him on their roster.

“Well we decided our two (quarterbacks) that we were going with,” Shanahan said. “We’ll see how our 53 (man roster) works out to see if we’re gonna keep three (quarterbacks) or not. We told Trey, when we told him that he wasn’t the two, I said we’d like to keep him here as the three, but we also wanna do what’s good for him too and we’ll see how this plays out. We looked into other teams and he told us that he would like another opportunity to go somewhere where he had a chance to be the two. We thought we got some good deals for him. There’s a number of teams involved. To end up getting the fourth was a little better than we’d anticipated, and clears up a lot of money and allows a better situation for him too.”

Ultimately the team decided that a fourth-round pick in next year’s draft was the best deal they’d get for Lance, and that moving him now for that draft pick was more valuable for them than keeping him this year. This comes just one day after general manager John Lynch told KNBR in San Francisco that the team wanted three quarterbacks to insulate themselves from the injury problems they had last season.

Shanahan said Lance didn’t request a trade, and that the deal didn’t happen because of an irreparable rift in the relationship between the QB and the team.

“We were good,” Shanahan said. “I actually had a great conversation with him today. Had a tough conversation when I told him he didn’t win the second job. Today was much easier just going through it the last couple days with him, but no. There was nothing to fix. It was what it was. And I told him when I told him he was gonna be the three if he could find another opportunity that was good we’d allow him to do that. And he did. And we feel he’ll be better for it and we feel we will too.”

The 49ers will now either go into the season with two QBs on the 53-man roster, or keep Brandon Allen as the third quarterback. Allen didn’t get many 11-on-11 reps during training camp, didn’t play in the second preseason game, and went two-of-six for 23 yards with an interception in Friday’s preseason finale.

Meanwhile, Lance will head to Dallas where he’ll work under head coach Mike McCarthy as the backup to QB Dak Prescott in hopes of getting his young career back on track.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Would 49ers do Trey Lance trade in new NFL Wire mock?

A new mock draft from @TheNFLWire includes a Trey Lance trade the 49ers might have a hard time turning down.

News that the 49ers are actively taking calls about trading quarterback Trey Lance throws a fascinating wrinkle into what was a fairly slow lead up to the NFL draft. San Francisco wasn’t slated to pick until No. 99, but a new three-round mock draft by Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar explores how moving Lance before or during the draft could dramatically alter the team’s outlook over the three-day selection process.

Ultimately the team may not want to let go of the QB unless they’re blown away by an offer. Lance still holds value and his upside is still significant. However, there’s a tough risk-reward assessment San Francisco has to make when evaluating any trade.

If they don’t move on from Lance and he doesn’t improve, they run the risk of letting him leave in free agency in two years and they get nothing in return. The team can’t just trade him for peanuts though because the potential reward of having him on the roster outweighs the benefit of some mid or late-round pick in either of the next two drafts.

While there are a handful of teams that could be in on trying to acquire Lance, Farrar works out a deal that lands the young signal caller with a familiar face.

In the mock from TD Wire, the 49ers deal Lance to the Houston Texans with their new head coach and former 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans. In exchange for the QB, San Francisco lands pick Nos. 33, 65 and 73 in the 2023 draft.

This is the kind of deal the 49ers would leap at. Not only do they fetch a trio of picks for the third-year QB, but all three land in the top 100 with one in the top 50. They previously had one pick in the top 100 (No. 99) and zero in the top 50.

A deal like this would give them the firepower to climb up into the first round –  something they’d almost certainly try to do with 14 total picks at their disposal. The 33rd pick with one of their third-round selections would likely be enough to get them into the back end of Round 1.

A trade for Lance is going to have to be one that comes off as something of an overpay for a third-year QB with only two starts under his belt, and the mock Texans’ offer would very likely be enough to pry Lance away from the 49ers.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Trey Lance trade: Hypothetical offers from NFL Wire crew

Hypothetical Trey Lance trade offers and whether the #49ers would accept them:

The 49ers’ quarterback saga took another turn Wednesday when NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reported San Francisco is fielding calls about trading quarterback Trey Lance.

While that doesn’t seem like a particularly sound idea given the team’s struggles at the position the last six years, there’s a chance a club hits them with an offer they can’t refuse.

The reality is Lance has two years left on his rookie contract (plus the fifth-year team option) and his path forward has significant road blocks according to head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch. They could just hold onto him and get nothing when he walks away in free agency. Or they could try and recoup some value in this year’s draft where they don’t pick until No. 99 at the end of the third round.

What might a team offer for Lance? We reached out to the editors for the NFL Wire sites to get an idea of what they’d be willing to part with for the QB. Here are those offers and whether the 49ers would do each deal:

Why would 49ers trade Trey Lance?

Why would the #49ers want to trade Trey Lance? A couple theories:

It appears the 49ers are ready to let go of quarterback Trey Lance. At least, that’s what Ian Rapoport’s report on the team fielding calls about the QB would indicate.

Rapoport’s report from “sources,” specified it was the 49ers receiving calls, not placing them. That would appear to be something coming directly from San Francisco. They’re letting teams know publicly that they’re open for business on the 2021 No. 3 overall pick.

General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan always say they’ll listen on any player. This is different though. This isn’t a team calling them about Deebo Samuel’s trade request. This is San Francisco trying to drum up interest in its talented, young signal caller with just four NFL starts under his belt.

As recently as the NFL owners’ meetings the 49ers were ready to let Lance and Sam Darnold duke it out for the QB1 job while Brock Purdy recovered from offseason elbow surgery. They conveyed a belief in Lance and repeated the line that he just needs to play to help clear the experience hurdle that has been in his way since the COVID-19 pandemic eliminated his final college season.

Now this report surfaces and suddenly Lance’s immediate future in San Francisco appears to be in jeopardy.

So, how did we get here? Here are some theories on why the 49ers might want to trade the former No. 3 overall pick: