Trey Lance’s snaps were always going to be a story line throughout the 49ers offseason program and into training camp. The third-year QB took the first-team snaps at Tuesday’s session according to reporters on site, but head coach Kyle Shanahan balked at the idea that there was any significance to that.
Shanahan in his press conference confirmed Lance took all the first-team snaps the first two days of OTAs, but noted that wouldn’t necessarily be the case moving forward.
“I think he did for today and yesterday,” Shanahan said. “So far, yeah he has, but it’ll even out. We’ll make sure to get that right.”
In the voluntary, non-contact sessions it’s hard to glean a ton though, which is why the 49ers’ head coach later joked about the idea of ‘first team reps’ at this stage of the season.
“The ‘first team’s’ kind of funny because there’s no line out there,” Shanahan said while cutting off another question. “Most of our receivers are second and third team on the first team today, so I’m curious what everyone thinks first, and second, and third team is.”
For now there won’t be much to make of what players are playing on what teams given how much the coaching staff is still trying to figure out, and how many key players won’t attend the voluntary portions of the workouts.
Once attendance is mandatory though and the pre-season preparations really gear up in training camp, we can start making more of who is playing with which team. Lance and fellow QB Sam Darnold are duking it out for the QB1 job until Brock Purdy returns, and even then their productivity in Purdy’s absence could play a role in who starts even when they’re all healthy.
First team reps shouldn’t be a huge deal for the moment, but at some point they’ll tell us a real story about what the team is going to look like heading into the regular season.
