What QB Trey Lance has learned with the Chargers and in the NFL

EL SEGUNDO, Calif --Trey Lance's career wasn't supposed to go this way.

Months after losing in the NFC Championship Game, the San Francisco 49ers traded three first-round picks and a third-rounder to the Miami Dolphins to move up and draft Lance at No. 3 overall in 2021. It was a franchise-altering move -- a clear indicator that San Francisco believed it was a quarterback away from winning a Super Bowl.

Lance, who played at North Dakota State, had just 17 college starts and 318 pass attempts. But coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch fell in love with his potential: A 6-foot-4, 226-pound quarterback with a big arm who could also run, totaling 1,100 rushing yards in 2019.

Four years later, Lance is on his third team, now backing up Justin Herbert for the Los Angeles Chargers. The 25-year-old has yet to reach the potential the 49ers envisioned, but he also hasn't had much of an opportunity. He has appeared in 15 games with five starts in four seasons, due to injuries and the stunning rise of 2022 seventh-round pick Brock Purdy.

Lance will get another opportunity this Sunday, when the Chargers take on the Denver Broncos (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS), as Herbert and other key players will sit out with Los Angeles locked into a playoff spot. While the Chargers resting starters makes this game appear meaningless, it could change the career trajectory of a player with the potential that made an organization mortgage its future just a few years ago.

"Every year I learned new things about myself," Lance told ESPN. "I've been kind of refining my process and finding my process. And now I feel like these last couple of years, I'm in a good spot with just being ready to play mentally and physically."

As a rookie, the 49ers planned to use Lance in packages behind Jimmy Garoppolo, but a broken right index finger in the preseason derailed that plan. In his sophomore season, Lance won the starting job over Garoppolo and Purdy but suffered a broken ankle in Week 2 and eventually underwent season-ending surgery. In Week 13, Garoppolo broke his left foot, ending his season. From there Purdy emerged as a capable starter, and led the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game. On the first drive of that game, Purdy tore his UCL and San Francisco lost31-7.

The 49ers didn't re-sign Garoppolo, instead adding quarterback Sam Darnold in March 2023, which set up a training camp quarterback competition between Purdy, Darnold and Lance. But Lance fell behind both Purdy and Darnold and requested a trade. The Cowboys dealt a fourth-round pick for him, ending his time in San Francisco.

When Lance was drafted, he said, "I don't think I could have been in a better situation." On paper, that made sense -- he was joining a winning organization with one of the league's best offensive coaches in Shanahan. But in the end, that may have worked against him.

Shanahan acknowledged that Lance was a developmental quarterback who needed reps, but the 49ers were championship contenders. Lance didn't have the luxury of learning through mistakes, and his injuries opened the door for Purdy, now one of the league's highest-paid quarterbacks after signing a five-year, $265 million deal.

"I do think Trey needs an opportunity to play more," Shanahan said after the trade. "When he had those two opportunities here, he got hurt."

Lance hasn't fully gotten that chance elsewhere, either. In Dallas, he started one game -- last season's finale against Washington -- and finished 20-of-34 for 244 yards. Sunday is his next shot.

Offensive coordinator Greg Roman said he's seen significant development from Lance out on the practice field this season, particularly with Lance's footwork and throwing motion.

"I really feel like that's improving," Roman said. "But he really hasn't played a ton of football games, [including] college when you add it all up. So his best days are ahead of him."

Lance said that being with the Chargers has been different from his stints in San Francisco and Dallas, particularly pointing to how much coach Jim Harbaugh is involved and his attention to detail. It's an aspect that Lance appreciates.

"I mean, he'll be under there watching how you take a snap," Lance said with a smile. "He'll be in there watching slow-mo, zoomed in, how you hand the ball off to [the] running back, things like that.

Everything from the way you wake up in the morning, the way you go to bed at night, coach Harbaugh's got a process and that's something I try to learn."

The past four years have been challenging, Lance said, as he navigated the shift from being one of the top picks to backup without ever truly getting the runway to prove himself. He said leaned on his family, therapy and other support systems through the ups and downs.

"It was a long process, and these last few years have just been about finding out about myself," he said. "How I operate, how to get myself to operate at the highest level, and doing that without getting the reps."

He continued "I feel like I'm in a really good spot mentally. And the physical stuff, that's just the work that kind of takes care of itself."

The unfortunate reality for Lance is that Sunday's opportunity comes in an extremely unfavorable scenario. The Chargers already have one of the NFL's worst offensive lines and won't be playing many of their starters against the NFL's best defense at sacking the quarterback.

The Broncos, unlike the Chargers, have more than just playoff seeding to play for. If Denver wins, they clinch the No. 1 seed, which gives them a first round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

If Lance finds a way to put together a standout performance it could give his career a jump start, but he said he doesn't think of it that way.

"Going through everything my first five years in the league I just learned to take it one day at a time," Lance said. "... I was excited obviously, but I don't think too much about everything else that's going on."