San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance certainly has an uncertain future in the NFL, as it looks like he’s competing for the 49ers backup job right now.
Kyle Shanahan bluntly confirmed this week that quarterback Brock Purdy should hold down the team’s starting gig, which may mean that Lance eventually ends up elsewhere in the NFL to contend for a starting job.
However, his situation is far more complex than whatever former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi seems to think about it.
Discussing Lance’s future on his DraftKings show The GM Shuffle, Lombardi made some ridiculously unfair assessments of the quarterback’s general abilities and flatly says that Lance doesn’t have “quarterback instinct.”
“As you go down this road with Lance, it just becomes harder and harder and harder,” Lombardi said on his show, “and you can show all the clips of him moving and all that stuff. At the end of the day when his momma lifted him from the crib, he just didn’t have that quarterback instinct.
“He is not going to be the backup quarterback. I don’t know what they’re going to do with him, but there’s no chance. There is no chance based on the evidence that I’ve seen and based on what I’ve heard.”
The reality of Trey Lance: if a play doesn't goes the way he practiced, it breaks down. When his mom lifted him up from the crib, he didn't have that QB instinct. He won't win the backup QB spot based on what I've seen and heard.
Check out #GMShuffle at https://t.co/b4sYN4CC91 pic.twitter.com/SsDEIyqzJq
— Michael Lombardi (@mlombardiNFL) August 15, 2023
While no one can say for certain that Lance will be able to win a starting NFL job one day, trying to obliterate the basic quarterback instinct that earned him being drafted so high in 2021 is just incorrect.
Lance had plenty of quarterback instincts when he was tearing it up at North Dakota State, and it’s not Lance’s fault that his career has been riddled with injuries so far.
He would’ve started a full season last fall had he not gotten hurt, and it’s not on Lance that the 49ers want to roll with Purdy this fall after the latter played so well.
Plus, the backup quarterback battle definitely isn’t over in San Francisco. Sam Darnold has struggled since being taken at the same pick as Lance, but we don’t hear Lombardi critiquing Darnold’s quarterback instincts.
The jury is still out on how Lance will be as an NFL quarterback, which is far more judicious than Lombardi’s wildly off-base hot takes about the quarterback.
As you can imagine, NFL fans ripped Lombardi for this take.
NFL fans let Lombardi have it.
There are ways to do these things. This is not one of them. https://t.co/UXgWeoQwQQ
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) August 16, 2023
This is a nasty agenda. Trey has played in 13 real NFL quarters, 4 were during a hurricane. And even so his play does not warrant this level of disrespect. https://t.co/3SwV2IQPc5
— Sean Jordan (@BaySean) August 16, 2023
At the time you tweeted this Sam Darnold was in his 3rd season, had two 0 TD, 4 INT games on his resume, was completing 59% with a below average 80.8 passer rating with a 6.8 YPA.
You’ve seen Trey play in 3 whole games.
🤡 https://t.co/rZfeLEHSTN pic.twitter.com/AuQOKfYzrd
— PRIME (@NinerLogic) August 16, 2023
Dissect the play all you want but this is just weird https://t.co/QnxwDu8ipR
— Sterling Bennett (@49ers_Access) August 16, 2023
Michael Lombardi is constantly wrong on everything, but at least he makes up for it by being disgustingly repugnant towards players and coaches. https://t.co/pBWCCjfmi4
— Alex Insdorf (@alexinsdorf99) August 16, 2023
The hate ya'll have for this kid is weird https://t.co/lwLoNDJT5Y
— JJ (@MichaelRedz) August 16, 2023
This is .. wow.
I don't like Trey Lance at all but WOW this is too hard. https://t.co/Qs6aNF6a48— Héctor Cantú (@HectorCantu_) August 16, 2023
The Trey Lance discourse has officially gone too far https://t.co/Roq6Hhhb0D
— Zevan Shuster (@ZevanShuster) August 16, 2023
Studies should be done on the media coverage of Trey Lance https://t.co/UxIzGb1UTJ
— Derek Mountain (@DerekMountain) August 16, 2023
Very strange thing to say. Very. https://t.co/xKtKSse2wm
— Vincent Frank (@VincentFrankNFL) August 16, 2023
Weirdo https://t.co/DLSEZQRmc6
— THIS IS THE WAY! (@RoscoesMr) August 16, 2023
I root for @treylance09.
The amount of vitriol he receives daily is ridiculous. The man hasn’t played a game in almost a year. He started 3 FULL games thus far & suffered injuries. Before that, he only played 1 season in college.
Man, I hope he succeeds. https://t.co/dqOS0nKyyU
— The GM🅿️ (@The_GregP) August 16, 2023
You could live life pretty comfortably betting against Lombardi’s takes. https://t.co/gqQ0K2BHVo
— Zach (@zachhernan) August 16, 2023
What? https://t.co/PSyiearDJ8
— Al_Foe (@brunson_23) August 16, 2023
I hope Trey goes to another team and balls out man https://t.co/t6G1h2L0g4
— DC (@daniel__comer) August 16, 2023
Cringe. https://t.co/99zwQXOkHy
— DDubbbz918 (Xbox GT) (@ddubbz918) August 16, 2023
