Ready or not, here we go.
The Trey Lance era begins in 15 days, when the 49ers play in Chicago. Is Lance truly prepared for what's coming?
Said coach Kyle Shanahan on Friday: "We've run out of those [preseason] games and he's just ready to go as he can be."
Shanahan said after the preseason finale that he'd planned to play Lance for only two drives against the Texans. Shanahan decided to give Lance a third drive. He may have been tempted to give him even more.
"I would love to get Trey more practice and everything and more experience, so I would always want more of that," Shanahan said. "He needs to get in these real games now and start playing and there's going to be times he makes some mistakes and he has to learn from them and find a way to still win the game and overcome some of those things as he learns on the run. I'm glad he did get some experience in this preseason. Always wish he could have got more, but I am glad that he came out healthy this year, where last year he came out with that broken pinky that did affect him."
Although Lance didn't have a great game on Thursday night, he didn't seem to be freaked out about it.
"Trey's been very even-keeled throughout it all," Shanahan said. "And that's why it'll be fun to go through this season with him, because yeah, you know that's not always going to be the case. So we'll go through the fire together. He'll go through with this whole team this year and what he's shown and what he's done throughout his whole life and what he's done since been here. We've got the ultimate confidence in him handling the situation right, whatever that situation is."
Shanahan truly doesn't know what the situation will be. We've all seen flashes from Lance, but no one knows how he'll perform as a week-in, week-out starter, especially once teams have enough film to study. As with every young quarterback who becomes the full-time starter for the first time, it will work or it won't.
There's only one way to find out.
Kyle Shanahan: I'd love to get Trey Lance more reps, but he's as ready to go as he can be originally appeared on Pro Football Talk