First look at 49ers quarterback Trey Lance throwing again

Posted By on April 6, 2023

For the first time since week two, 49ers fans can catch a glimpse of Trey Lance throwing a football.

Working his way back after suffering a broken ankle against Seattle in week two, Lance is working out with two-time Super Bowl winner Patrick Mahomes. The 49ers quarterback appears to have tightened up his throwing motion, and the much talked about wobble from his rookie season appears gone.

Lance began working out in late February and all signs point to him being ready when the 49ers hit the field for OTA practices in May.

Speaking at the NFL combine at the beginning of March, 49ers general manager John Lynch spoke about the progress he’d already seen from the quarterback.

“He’s doing really well. I feel like I tell you guys this all the time, but when I’m on my office, I got a nice view. I’m on the second floor, I got a nice view of the field,” said Lynch. “I get reports obviously, but my eyes tell me a lot and I’m watching Trey out there taking drops each day. I don’t see a limp. It’s not to say he’s a 100%, but he’s really recovering well and doing a really nice job and so, he did start the throwing here recently. Trey’s rehabbing extremely well.”

Lance enters year three as still a bit of an unknown. Injuries have limited him to just four starts. When asked where Lance can show the most improvement, Lynch pointed to availability.

“I think his biggest thing, we just have to find a way and I’ve had a lot of conversations with Trey, early in my career, I struggled to stay healthy and then I hit an eight-year stretch where I didn’t miss the snap, so sometimes you just have to go through that, the rough patches and he has to play,” Lynch responded. “And that’s the biggest challenge, we have a team that’s ready to go now. He has to get out there and play. Brock got that opportunity this year. He grabbed it, he did great things, we’ll see at some point how we get Trey that opportunity because we very much believe in who he is as a person and who he is as a quarterback.”

This article has 15 Comments

  1. Thanks, Jack for the Lance update. I’m happy to hear that Trey is working out with Mahomes. This can only be beneficial for him, and also shows that the 49ers FO still values him. Mahomes is the QB that I wanted back in 2017, but if he can help Trey in any way it’s a good thing.

    Jack, as you mentioned, I also noticed Lance’s more compact throwing motion. This will allow for a quicker release on passes.
    Looking forward to see how he does in TC.

  2. Lance is certainly a nice young man. He acts and speaks pleasantly. But he is not a nice young quarterback and likely will not be one. Discussions of trading Lance fail to point out that other teams would not want an unproven quarterback, and the Niners probably will keep him around long enough this summer to create a better image—and thus make him a candidate for a trade. Until then Lance will be the Niners third QB, destined to remain a disappointment.

    1. You don’t think Lances 2 full years in the offense and his rapport with the WR’s gives him an edge over Darnold?

  3. Wow! He really did clean up that throwing motion. That’s an amazing difference. I haven’t looked in a while but his rookie season he had a gigantic loop and hitch in his motion. He still holds the ball too low but he used to drop the ball down as low as his hip and then a gigantic loop back before he reached the actual throwing motion. Hopefully he improves and burns that motion into his subconscious so he can maintain the proper mechanics under high pressure situations.

    2. Lance has a strong arm and needs to learn touch. An analogy is in fighting, Big punchers sometimes tend to load up a bit too much (slight draw back prior to throwing say, a straight right) going for the kill shot. This generates more power, but it slows the delivery significantly. This reminds me of Treys looping motion prior to release . Last year he
      would drop the loop as low as his waist, If you watch Jimmy (say what you will he had one of the fastest releases in the NFL, Like Tom Brady did) he would hold the ball almost to his ear and throw a straight line, more like a jab to a boxer. Good for short distance accuracy (what Trey needs most). Go ahead and load up to throw a 50 yard bomb down the sideline, but when you need to check down to CMC, or hit Deebo on a slant, or hot read get that ball up and snap it fast. You are strong enough do it !

      1. I grew up boxing and my dad was a boxer. So that’s a pretty good analogy that I understand but I prefer the baseball analogy. Lance’s delivery was more like a Right Fielder winding up and crow hopping from the fence to throw a guy out at 3rd. It’s an extremely long delivery for a very long throw so those mechanics make sense in that situation. For the shorter throws, Lance needs to be a 2nd baseman turning a double play. In that situation, the 2nd baseman is trained to make the catch, never even close his glove so he has a lightning quick transfer to his throwing hand, and then immediately pulls his throwing hand to his ear with no windup and makes the throw as quickly as possible. For long throws, it’s ok to wind up a bit. For most other throws you need a quick delivery with no windup. QBs need to turn that double play.

  4. Yes, that looked better but it’s practice and in front of a camera so it doesn’t mean much. Can he do that in a game situation, when the pressures on? Hopefully he can but many people revert to old habits when the pressure is on.

  5. One thing going for him is he has a lot of time to practice. Time to cement in the muscle memory.

  7. Lance has a strong arm and needs to learn touch. An analogy is in fighting, Big punchers sometimes tend to load up a bit too much (slight draw back prior to throwing say, a straight right) going for the kill shot. This generates more power, but it slows the delivery significantly. This reminds me of Treys looping motion prior to release . Last year he
    would drop the loop as low as his waist, If you watch Jimmy (say what you will he had one of the fastest releases in the NFL, Like Tom Brady did) he would hold the ball almost to his ear and throw a straight line, more like a jab to a boxer. Good for short distance accuracy (what Trey needs most). Go ahead and load up to throw a 50 yard bomb down the sideline, but when you need to check down to CMC, or hit Deebo on a slant, or hot read get that ball up and snap it fast. You are strong enough do it !

  8. Well .. will have to wait all this out. We have no idea yet until TL can string together at least 4-5 starts if he can get the chance. He is training and will be playing with a completely different mindset than he was at the beginning of last season. Lance will surely benefit from the competition knowing that he will not be a lock to be the starter.

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