Hall of Famer talks about whether 49ers gave QB Trey Lance a real chance to succeed

San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana believes the club gave quarterback Trey Lance a legitimate chance to succeed before the franchise traded Lance to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2024 fourth-round draft pick. 

"I think there was opportunity there for him," Montana said about Lance while speaking with NBC Bay Area's Ian Cull (h/t Ali Thanawalla). "I think in the last two preseason games, they gave him some more time just to be sure that the decision, I think they were probably pondering anyway, was what they wanted to do."

Lance has made just four career regular-season starts in the NFL, suffered a campaign-ending ankle injury last September and watched as he lost the starting job to 2022 rookie sensation Brock Purdy. The 2021 first-round draft selection then failed to impress in the preseason opener at the Las Vegas Raiders on Aug. 13. Eric Edholm of the NFL.com noted that Lance completed 22-of-33 passes (66.7 percent) for 285 yards with two touchdowns and one interception across two exhibition games before he was dropped to third on the San Francisco depth chart and eventually shipped to Dallas.

Montana mentioned during a recent radio interview he felt Lance was a bad fit for the offense run by 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. The Pro Football Hall of Famer expanded on that during his chat with Cull. 

"From the system he came from, learning this system is not easy," Montana said about Lance making the transition from playing at North Dakota State to working with Shanahan. "It's a pocket system. It's not where he came from...And so sometimes it's just the luck of the draw of where you get drafted and what team and Trey, great athlete and, you know, he may be a great player, but he just wasn't a fit here."

Montana added that he "spoke to" Lance "a couple of times" about Shanahan's offense. The four-time Super Bowl champion nevertheless couldn't help the 23-year-old earn a long-term spot with the Niners. 

"It's just hard if, if the system, if you don't understand the system and how it works, and what you're expected to do, it's hard to be successful in that when you're trying to figure it out on the run," Montana explained. 

Only time will tell if the 49ers gave up on Lance too quickly. Shanahan isn't going anywhere anytime soon, meaning Montana's assessment suggests the young signal-caller needed a change of scenery ahead of his third pro season.