49ers’ Kyle Shanahan ‘very surprised’ if Trey Lance starts Week 1 vs Lions

The San Francisco 49ers gave up a small fortune to move up in the draft (first-round picks in 2021, 2022, and 2023 as well as a 2021 third) to acquire quarterback Trey Lance from North Dakota State. While Lance is the quarterback of the future in the bay area, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t expect him to be ready to start Week 1 game against the Detroit Lions.

At his press conference on Monday, Shanahan said it would be very hard for Lance to beat out incumbent starter Jimmy Garappolo during the offseason/preseason and he’d be “very surprised” if that happened. In fact, Shanahan isn’t even considering splitting reps during training camp between the two quarterbacks at this time.

“There’s always competition, but no, we’re not splitting their reps up going against the ones and stuff,” Shanahan continued. “I thought Trey had one of his better days on Saturday. But that was nothing to move him up there to start talking differently with Jimmy or anything like that.”

When asked if he expected Lance to get snaps with the ones anytime soon, Shanahan replied: “Yeah. It’s not, I haven’t planned that at all. Yeah.”

So unless something “drastic” happens between now and September 12th, the Lions will be game-planning to stop Garappolo.