Well, that was an utter disaster pick. The San Francisco 49ers have finally cut their losses and traded out draft bust Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys for just a 2024 4th round pick in return.
This is one of the very worst trades in NFL history…that is only made better by one of the better draft picks in NFL history.
In what has to be the worst trade and draft choice of the 2020’s thus far, the San Francisco 49ers are moving on from former #3 overall pick Trey Lance and have dished him out to the Dallas Cowboys for a meager 4th round pick after spending three first round picks (and four in total) to draft him two years ago. And, when you see the 49ers trading WITH their archenemy in the Cowboys, you know they DESPERATLY wanted to get rid of Lance.
As I just wrote, this trade with the Dallas Cowboys, which really just is Trey Lance heading from San Fran to Dallas in exchange for the Cowboys’ 2024 4th round pick, shows how desperate and eager the 49ers were in dishing out Trey Lance from their roster.
Despite only having Sam Darnold, who is a 1st round draft bust in his own right and has failed with both the NY Jets and Carolina Panthers, and Brock Purdy, who is coming off a UCL Tear and repair surgery for it, as the two QBs on the active roster, Trey Lance was so raw and unpolished that he couldn’t even beat out these two guys as Purdy recuperated from his injury.
I mean, in his two preseason starts, he went 22/33 (67%), threw for 283 yards, 2 TDs, and 1 INT as the 49ers starting QB, yet he still missed a good number of easy throws, misread a decent number of plays, and should have been picked off at least two or three more times than he actual was by the opposing defenses.
All in all, even though Lance played decently throughout the preseason, he just didn’t show nearly enough growth required to be a starting QB, let alone a franchise one as he was destined to be when the 49ers drafted him 3rd overall in 2021, for the 49ers in the NFL. And that’s why he’s now Dak Prescott’s backup in Dallas.
Nevertheless, before I end this article, I think it’s best just to take a quick sneak peek back to the 2021 draft and the utter calamity that was the 49ers-Dolphins trade that brought Trey Lance to the Bay Area in the first place.
Heading into the 2021 draft, the 49ers had just gone 6-10 due to devastating injuries to key players, such as QB Jimmy Garoppolo and DE Nick Bosa, and missed out on reaching the Super Bowl again after losing Super Bowl LIV 31-20 to the KC Chiefs.
So, with that sour season still in the minds of GM John Lynch and HC Kyle Shanahan, they made a massive trade with the Miami Dolphins as they traded up from the #12 spot, traded away their 2022 1st round pick, their 2022 3rd round pick, and their 2023 1st round pick in exchange for the 3rd overall pick in the 2021 draft.
And, despite having TE Kyle Pitts (Falcons: Pro-Bowler), WR Jamarr Chase (Bengals: All-Pro; Offensive Rookie of the Year), OT Penei Sewell (Lions: Pro-Bowler), CB Patrick Surtain II (Broncos: All-Pro), LB/DE Micah Parsons (Cowboys: All-Prol Defensive Rookie of the Year), OT Rayshawn Slater (Chargers: All-Pro), and QB Mac Jones (Patriots: Pro-Bowler) on the board (they all went within the Top-15 of the draft), the 49ers selected Trey Lance…a QB who had only played a dozen or so college games in his career and sat out the entire 2020 college season.
Now, before anyone says that it was impossible to know how dreadful Trey Lance would be at the professional level, that’s a fair point. But it gets completely nullified when you consider that all of these players I mentioned went within the Top-15 of the draft and the choice between Mac Jones and Trey Lance was a tossup the 49ers lost.
They could have had anyone of these players at the 3rd overall pick, reinforced their offense or defense, and then built around Jimmy Garoppolo for another year or two as they tried drafting and developing QBs with 2nd round picks or lower…which is exactly what they did after Jimmy Garoppolo took the 49ers to the NFC Championship game in 2021, Trey Lance broke his leg at the start of the 2022 season, Jimmy Garoppolo played half of the 2022 season before breaking his foot, and then 7th round pick Brock Purdy stepped up and led the 49ers to the NFC Championship game.
The only reason this isn’t one of the Top-10 worst trades in NFL history is because the 49ers lucked out MASSIVELY by taking Brock Purdy dead last (262nd overall) in the 2022 draft and he ended up being an extremely efficient, capable, and confident starter who helped lead the 49ers to the NFC Championship game.
So long as Purdy is able to fully recover from his UCL injury, the Trey Lance saga will be forgotten about in a year or two by 49ers fans and John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan can breathe a massive sigh of relief as they somehow found their franchise QB through a string of sheer luck.
Isn’t it funny how life works out in the end?
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