49ers’ Kyle Shanahan applauds Trey Lance for handling criticism, not ready to reveal if Brock Purdy will play

Trey Lance may not be the starting quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers this season. He may not be on the team past this year.

Facing an uncertain future in San Francisco after the 49ers traded an immense amount of draft capital to get him, head coach Kyle Shanahan has appreciated how Lance has handled the immense expectations. Lance hasn’t lived up to the draft hype yet, even though he keeps a clear head through it all.

“It just goes with the territory. It goes with it for quarterbacks, it goes with it for anybody who’s a high draft pick, but especially a quarterback,” Shanahan told reporters Wednesday. “That’s one of the tough things I think for that position, but also for high draft picks. You watch receivers come in the league and they have a few drops early in camp and there becomes a lot of pressure on them. People want to see those people take off and do it right away and have no flaws and that’s just part of it.” 

Lance started the 49ers’ preseason opener in place of Brock Purdy, who’s coming back from a UCL injury, but the numbers were deceiving (10 of 15, 112 yards, TD, 111.0 rating). The 49ers didn’t score a point until Lance’s fourth possession Sunday against the Raiders, as he looked indecisive about whether to throw to receivers or take off running.

Of course, everything Lance does is under the microscope because the 49ers traded multiple first-round picks to select him at No. 3 overall. The 49ers haven’t given up on him, but hard to ignore what Purdy did in his first seven starts last season. 

“Trey is extremely smart, very socially aware. He knows how the world works,” Shanahan said. “And so, he does his best, which I think he does a damn good job of trying to block all that out and just focus on getting better. And I think that’s what he has done so far.” 

As for Purdy, his reps are increasing as the 49ers get him ready to play Week 1. Shanahan isn’t set to commit on if Purdy or the starters will play this week. 

“We wanted Trey to get the majority of the first half so Sam [Darnold] could get the next week,” Shanahan said of the quarterback plan. “So that’s what we’re planning on, but we’ll see how the next two practices go before we decide for sure.” 

More Lance at this point of the year isn’t a bad thing.