Niner Noise
FanSided

NFL Draft: 1 quarterback 49ers can target in each round

By Jeremy Wohlfart

Quarterback Trey Lance #5 of the North Dakota State Bison (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
Quarterback Trey Lance #5 of the North Dakota State Bison (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images) /
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Trey Lance, NDSU Bison, 49ers
Quarterback Trey Lance #5 of the North Dakota State Bison (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images) /

The 49ers may be looking at quarterbacks in the 2021 NFL Draft, and here is one in each round they can target.

The biggest question potentially facing the San Francisco 49ers is exactly what the team plans to do at the quarterback position in the offseason.

Will the team go with the incumbent, Jimmy Garoppolo, as they’ve publicly declared? Or are the Niners planning to look for an upgrade elsewhere? And if they do go with the former option or trade for a veteran signal-caller, will they find a quarterback in the draft?

And going off on that tangent, will the team look at a quarterback in the draft in the early or the later rounds?

So, yes, there are a lot of theories and opinions on what precisely San Francisco will be doing at the position as it looks to re-establish itself as a contender in the NFC. But if the 49ers are eyeing at least one quarterback in each of the draft’s seven rounds this April, these following names could be in play.

49ers quarterback prospect (Round 1): Trey Lance, North Dakota State

Trey Lance is the latest hot prospect from an FCS school, and the North Dakota State standout has played himself in a position to be a first-round selection.

Lance is the very definition of a raw, talented prospect. While they don’t have the same style of play, he’s not unlike the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen in the sense that they’ve come from a smaller school with an intriguing but unfinished skillset.

And as Buffalo has shown, a team that can successfully develop a quarterback like that can find itself with a true franchise quarterback onhand.

Lance is a prospect who has a realistic chance to be available to the 49ers at No. 12 overall in Round 1 unlike Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields and BYU’s Zach Wilson. If the team wants a potential franchise quarterback, Lance may be the most appealing target.

It does come with the caveat of him being raw, however. If the Niners grab Lance, they’d need a good bridge quarterback until he’s ready.