It didn’t take long for Trey Lance to find a new home. Despite the San Francisco 49ers holding out hope that the former No. 3 overall pick would decide to stay and fight for his place in the pecking order, Lance’s camp ultimately decided that it was time to move on to greener pastures after he was demoted to the QB3 role behind Brock Purdy and Sam Darnold.
On Friday, news hit that the Niners had agreed to trade Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick, thereby putting an end to the 23-year-old’s uneventful two-year tenure in San Francisco.
Brock Purdy ‘Forever Grateful’ for Trey Lance
There’s no denying that Brock Purdy played a key role in Lance’s downfall with the 49ers. Purdy had an amazing rookie campaign last term, which led to the seventh-round pick securing the QB1 role in San Francisco.
For his part, though, Purdy had nothing but high praise for Trey Lance. Purdy expressed his gratitude to his now-former teammate for everything Lance did for him during Brock’s rookie year:
“Yes. Obviously, I love Trey, everything that he’s done for this organization and obviously for myself,” Purdy said of Lance, via the team transcripts (h/t Christian Gonzales of NFL.com). “I know I’ve told you guys a bunch of times before, but going in last year and then him just being by my side from the get-go sideline, meetings in the locker room, wherever we are at, man, he’s been a real one and helped me come into the league and welcome me with open arms and showed me the ropes to this whole thing. So can’t tell you how grateful I am for him and to have him in my life and to be here with him.
“So forever grateful for Trey. Obviously, in terms of the situation, like happy for him that he’s able to go into a good situation and we all feel like it’s a good fit. But at the end of the day, I can’t say how thankful I am to have played and been a teammate with Trey.”
There’s obviously no bad blood between these two young quarterbacks. At the end of the day, the NFL is a nasty business.
Sam Darnold Chimes in On Trey Lance Saga
While Purdy may have played an integral role in Lance’s demotion, it was Sam Darnold who pretty much ended Trey’s Niners tenure. This was after Darnold outplayed Lance in the preseason, forcing the coaching staff to hand over the QB2 role to Darnold.
The veteran quarterback has now spoken out about the QB race in San Francisco, and he has made it abundantly clear that he had no intention to usurp Trey Lance:
“We were doing everything that we could to earn that job,” Darnold said. “I think for me, as a competitor, you’re expected to want to win that job. For me, it was just going out there and playing really good football every single day. I knew that at the end of the day if I did that, I could be in a really good spot to earn that job. I wasn’t in my head at all. Ever. I wasn’t thinking that I have a really good chance to win this. I was just taking it one day at a time, one practice at a time, one game at a time.”
Well, that mentality obviously worked wonders for Darnold. Not only has earned the backup job behind Purdy in San Francisco, but he’s also pretty much forced Trey Lance out the door, albeit unintentionally.
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