San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance has responded to reports that he’s dealing with “arm fatigue.”
Appearing on Quincy Avery’s “The Q” show (h/t David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone), Lance sounded off on the reports that he had experienced arm fatigue:
“Yeah, it was just honestly, I don’t know. If there’s someone out there at quarterback throwing that much, I mean, it was just, realistically, going back—COVID, and then I started throwing in May because I was rehabbing my hip. So that was when I started getting the ball back in my hand, in May. So I threw from May 2020 all the way through that year, draft prep, get drafted the next April.
“So, at that point, I had been throwing for a year straight and then go through that whole season until the next January. So I’d say probably, I don’t know, about 20 months straight of throwing. Like I said, probably a week off in there. I don’t even know if I took a whole week (off) between that whole time. But through that whole season, yeah, for probably 20 months straight.”
Lance opened the 2022 season as the 49ers’ starting quarterback. Unfortunately, the North Dakota State product suffered an ankle injury that ended his season in Week 2. Jimmy Garoppolo took over as the starter before suffering a season-ending foot injury in Week 13, prompting San Fran to start rookie Brock Purdy the rest of the way.
Purdy, the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft (hence the “Mr. Irrelevant” nickname), won all five regular season starts and led San Francisco to the NFC Championship Game. But Purdy had to leave the game for a while with an elbow injury, and backup Josh Johnson was later ruled out after suffering a concussion.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan has already confirmed that the team won’t bring back Garoppolo, but the starting job appears to be an open competition between Lance and Purdy. The 49ers gave up a plethora of picks to move up so they could take Lance third overall in 2021, but it’s also hard to sit a guy like Purdy who supplied San Fran with their best QB play all season long.
Another quarterback controversy in San Fran? Stay tuned.
