It appears quarterbacks Brock Purdy and Trey Lance may be sharing the San Francisco 49ers’ locker room this coming summer and fall, after all.
ESPN’s Nick Wagoner and former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum explained in a piece published Wednesday why the 49ers probably won’t trade Lance despite the rise of Purdy since early December. While Lance’s rookie contract remains relatively inexpensive, it includes “$11-plus million” that would become “dead money” if San Francisco dealt the 22-year-old this offseason.
“Tannenbaum suggests it would take ‘something significant’ along the lines of at least a first-round pick to make it worthwhile,” Wagoner noted about the 49ers possibly trading Lance. “That seems unlikely, though not impossible, even in a quarterback market in which plenty of wild stuff has happened in recent years.”
Lance went down with a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2, and Purdy was called into action after Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a broken foot on Dec. 4. Including the Week 13 victory over the Miami Dolphins, Purdy has guided the 49ers to eight consecutive wins and gone 7-0 as a starter.
The last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft produced positive results in playoff games against the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys and will become the fifth rookie quarterback to start a conference championship game this Sunday at the Philadelphia Eagles.
Whispers that the 49ers could shop Lance before this year’s draft and begin springtime workouts with Purdy atop their depth chart seemingly grow louder with each San Francisco win.
However, Wagoner indicated head coach Kyle Shanahan will either have Purdy and Lance compete over QB1 duties this summer or enter the preseason with Lance serving as Purdy’s primary backup.
Shanahan remains in the middle of a season that has included losing a pair of quarterbacks to significant physical setbacks. Thus, it’s understandable he’d want to hold onto both Purdy and Lance into September unless general manager John Lynch receives an offer for Lance he can’t refuse.
