If there’s one quarterback in the history of the San Francisco 49ers who understands that how a player starts his career doesn’t guarantee how he will perform for the rest of his career, it’s Steve Young.
Perhaps that’s why the Hall of Famer, who threw 21 interceptions in his first two years as a pro against just 11 touchdowns for a miserable Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, and the next four as Joe Montana’s understudy, seems to have patience for Niner’s QB Trey Lance. Instead, he focused his criticism on Kyle Shanahan and his game planning.
In an interview with “Tolbert & Copes” on KNBR this Wednesday, Young expressed several concerns about Shanahan’s dealings with Lance, assuming the coaching staff was quite pleased with how last week’s conservative offensive game plan went in the first half. . It wasn’t until the Chicago Bears roared to take the lead that the attack opened up, after which the weather conditions were a dramatic impediment. Young wondered if Shanahan’s conservative phone calls with Lance early on denied him the chance to “get into a groove” earlier.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Here’s your coming out party,'” Young said. “No, it was very, very careful, very reserved. Got to the 10-0 lead. At halftime Kyle was probably thinking to himself, ‘Perfection, everything is fine, let’s close this.’ And then they got stuck.”
It didn’t seem to be the first time Young felt that San Francisco’s play-calling was stifling Lance’s growth. When discussing Lance’s development, the southpaw best known for efficient intermediate passes threw a few shots on the pitch to the organization’s management of Lance’s sporadic playing opportunities in 2021.
“I don’t know how you felt about Trey’s performances last year, not only were they very few, which to me if you really cared for him, you could have found places for him to make more appearances,” Young said. “And when he showed up, it felt like there were 15 quarterback runs. Like you never felt like they wanted to test the quarterback part.”
Undoubtedly, the man who ranks fifth in league history and first in franchise history to rush quarterback yards can appreciate the value of mobility in a QB.
Like many Niners fans, Young hopes that with the future game plan they will be “more elaborate”, even with rain in the forecast this Sunday when they host the Seattle Seahawks. If the Niners are a team with designs on a playoff run this year, as they should be, they’ll need Lance to show if he can sink or swim. If they follow Young’s advice, they might let him swim first when the water is calm next time, instead of keeping him indoors for 45 minutes and then dropping him into a typhoon.
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