5 biggest takeaways from 49ers’ 2022 mandatory minicamp

Takeaway No. 5: Trey Lance looks exceptionally good

I mean, we can all be honest with one another here, the biggest fear among fans was whether or not Trey Lance would be ready to put the team on its shoulders as the Niners look to return to the Super Bowl.

While we can’t see a definitive answer until we see the team take the field for some actual games, the early returns from the practice field have fans very excited and licking their lips at the possibilities.

Per Grant Cohn again, through the four practices that were held in front of the media, and thus we can actually keep track of statistics, Lance completed 50 of 67 passes for six touchdown passes and two interceptions.

It should also be noted one of those picks wasn’t on Lance, as wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk had a perfectly thrown ball bounce off him and into the arms of a defender.

So those excellent stats actually should look even better.

It’s also worth mentioning that Lance didn’t have a lot of his offensive line starters, George Kittle, running backs Elijah Mitchell and Ty Davis-Price, Danny Gray or Deebo Samuel for any of the minicamp, nor did he have Aiyuk for Day 2.

The most encouraging thing of note is Lance wasn’t relying on his feet to get him out of trouble, instead looking poised and in control. Last season, we saw Lance had a tendency to scramble a lot in his two starts and take a lot of hits, but he doesn’t look particularly nervous like that thus far in his second year.

Make no mistake, this is Lance’s team now. While there are undoubtedly going to be bumps on the road ahead with such a young quarterback, he’s shown himself capable of taking the strides to become part of the club of promising young quarterbacks in this league.