49ers news: 3 things Trey Lance must improve after NFL debut

No. 1: 49ers want Trey Lance to deliver passes sooner

Almost a direct correlation of Trey Lance not quite trusting his receivers to get open and instead, waiting for them to do so, the Niners are going to want their rookie quarterback to work on cutting down the total amount of time he’s needed to pass the ball.

Simply put, he takes a while. According to Next Gen Stats, Lance is the NFL leader in most time to throw with his tosses taking, on average, 3.12 seconds. Typically, the magical cutoff point is 2.5 seconds when a pass rush typically is close to getting home.

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Mobile quarterbacks like Lance often average higher, of course, as they’re capable of extending plays with their legs.

In Lance’s case, though, waiting for plays to develop or perhaps not quite seeing the field as well as he should, is forcing him to hold onto the ball much longer.

This is a bigger concern than any windup or delivery aspects associated with his throwing motion. However, this is still common for a rookie.

Part of this can be attributed to head coach Kyle Shanahan’s play-calling, too, which should call for an increase in easier, high-percentage passing plays such as slants or wheel routes out of the backfield. If Lance can hone that element of his game, too, the rest of his skill set should see notable improvement as a result.