Trey Lance is facing an uncertain future with the San Francisco 49ers, partly because even he is impressed with what Brock Purdy did this season.
Purdy won all five of his regular-season starts, plus two more in the playoffs, after taking over for the injured Jimmy Garoppolo late in the season. The seventh-round rookie staked a strong claim to the job going forward, which would certainly come at Lance’s expense.
That made it interesting that Lance admitted he learned a bit watching Purdy play down the stretch.
“Brock, he plays the game the right way. That’s why he had so much success,” Lance said, via David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone. “I was just super excited for him. He worked his butt off, all OTAs, since the first day he got here, since the day he got drafted. So he deserved everything he got this year and more. I truly believe that.
“Just tried to help him as much as I could. Learned a lot from him, as well. Just from a human being standpoint, he’s a great person, someone that I see a lot of myself in, so it’s great for me to be able to have a quarterback room like we did throughout the year.”
Kudos to Lance for being a good teammate. After all, Purdy’s success was not necessarily good for Lance, who started the season as the team’s starting quarterback.
There have been some suggestions that the 49ers already know which direction they are going in at quarterback in 2023. Admittedly, that was before Purdy tore his UCL in the NFC Championship Game, which could potentially impact things.
