4 dream scenarios 49ers can hope for during 2022 season

49ers dream scenario No. 1: Trey Lance has a Patrick Mahomes-like sophomore year

There are plenty of comparisons to be drawn between how the 49ers handled their development of Trey Lance and what the Kansas City Chiefs did with their quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.

Both teams traded up for their quarterbacks. Both signal-callers sat behind veterans their rookie seasons, Mahomes behind then-starter Alex Smith in 2017 and Lance behind Jimmy Garoppolo last year.

Aside from diving into the weeds about each player’s skill set and potential, the Niners can obviously hope Lance displays a similar commanding takeover in his second season as Mahomes did in 2018, the year after he was drafted.

Want your voice heard? Join the Niner Noise team!

Write for us!

For reference’s sake, Mahomes took off at a rate never before seen for a second-year pro, throwing for over 5,000 yards with a whopping league-leading 50 touchdowns and a passer rating of 113.8, all leading to an easy decision to name him the NFL MVP that season.

OK, so we shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves here. Lance has a long, long way to go before he even sniffs the possibility of being an MVP candidate.

However, even a modest replication of Mahomes’ second year in the league for Lance would be an ideal outcome for San Francisco, and combined with the other dream scenarios, it’d likely signal a truly great 2022 campaign overall.