The Trey Lance era may never get started with the San Francisco 49ers.
All of the picks the 49ers dished out in the move up to the No. 3 pick in the 2021 draft to select him have now been used. The team had sent their 2021, 2022, and 2023 first-round picks, as well as a 2022 third-round pick to the Dolphins so they could jump into the top three and ultimately select quarterback Trey Lance.
Now it seems that trade will never have a chance of working out for the 49ers.
According to NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, Lance could either be traded or be in the third-string QB position before the start of the 2023 season.
“To have the potential No. 3 overall pick on your roster be the potential third-string quarterback is awkward,” Rapoport said. “And at some point, there is more value out there to trade him than keeping him.”
Hours before Round 1 of the draft kicked off, CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson reported that no deal was imminent, and the Houston Texans moving up to No. 2 overall and grabbing quarterback C.J. Stroud ruled out one of the few remaining possibilities.
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When day two of the draft passed without a Lance deal, the thought of him being traded pretty much faded away.
The 49ers do not need to be in a rush to trade Lance. They can very well let him start the 2023 season to possibly get his trade value higher or just keep him around since Brock Purdy is still recovering from off-season elbow injury, and he might not be ready until the regular season.
At the current moment, Lance’s trade value has to be awfully low. If another team loses its quarterback to an injury during training camp or the preseason, however, Lance’s value could increase dramatically.
This is the NFL where things can change fairly quickly.
