5 things Trey Lance revealed during 49ers win vs. Texans

No. 4: Trey Lance is learning to navigate pressure better

Let’s go all the way back to Trey Lance’s first NFL start, not the regular season but in the preseason against the Kansas City Chiefs when defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo brought all kinds of heat to frustrate the rookie last August.

Lance took four sacks in that game, roughly two quarters of exhibition play, looking completely overwhelmed with mastering pressure.

During Lance’s lone regular-season start in 2021, a Week 5 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, he took only two sacks but frequently had to rely on his scrambling abilities instead of extending plays and looking down the field for receiving targets.

Again, it’s important to acknowledge the Texans don’t exactly boast a prolific pass rush. But Lance was sacked only once on a blitz where the right side of the 49ers offensive line was completely bullied over. On top of that, Lance was hit just twice in traditional drop-back-to-pass quarterback hits.

You can get an idea of Lance navigating the pocket much better in the video below:

There were designed runs, yes. But Lance also cut down on his previous tendencies of merely scrambling when a first or second read was covered.

That’s an awfully good sign of maturation.