Trey Lance injury: 49ers will feel these 3 massive ramifications

The 49ers lost Trey Lance to a season-ending injury in Week 2, and there’ll be some long-lasting ramifications the Niners can’t get around.

On the surface, the 2022 San Francisco 49ers are surprisingly built well enough to absorb what’s their latest installment of horrific injury news: losing second-year quarterback Trey Lance to a season-ending ankle injury amid the Niners’ Week 2 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

In what had turned into a strange pre-Week 1 development, San Francisco opted to keep the quarterback Lance was supposed to replace, Jimmy Garoppolo, instead of trading or releasing him.

Now, in the wake of Lance being done for the year, the 49ers simply turn to the veteran who has been the starter since the end of 2017.

That’s the surface-level takeaway. Garoppolo gets another chance instead of watching from the sidelines, which is great for him and his prospects for 2023 and beyond.

However, the Niners are about to feel a lot of notable ramifications and some serious fallout in the wake of Lance’s injury.

Such as the following.

Ramification No. 1: 49ers won’t get away from Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo controversy

Good thing San Francisco retained Garoppolo, right?

This wasn’t the plan, though. Garoppolo was supposed to be elsewhere by this point, putting to bed all the controversy and headaches that were associated with the Lance and Jimmy G duo dating back to spring of 2021 when Lance was drafted at No. 3 overall.

More on the impact to Lance in a moment, but let’s go ahead and assume Garoppolo plays at the level he displayed during the 49ers’ last two playoff seasons, 2019 and 2021.

Should that be the case, it doesn’t seem overly likely the talk of the Niners simply moving on from Garoppolo in 2023 when he’s set to become a free agent will go away.

Regardless of which quarterback fans and analysts prefer, it’s hard to get away from the media circus that stemmed from having both on the roster at the same time. Perhaps only the professionalism seem from both quarterbacks has avoided the larger headache, but it doesn’t make the headache go away entirely.

And it sure appears as if that headache and circus won’t go away now for another full year.

Ramification No. 2: 49ers will have to pay Jimmy Garoppolo a lot of money now

One of the ways San Francisco was able to keep Jimmy Garoppolo this season was by altering the remaining year on his contract, cutting away the original $24.2 million in base salary and giving him an incentive-laden $6.5 million fully guaranteed deal, according to Over the Cap.

It is, however, a deal potentially worth up to $14 million.

As Niners Nation’s Akash Anavarathan pointed out, Garoppolo can earn $250,000 per game in which he plays at least 25 percent of the snaps (he will now, barring injury) and another $100,000 per win:

In the wake of Week 2’s victory over Seattle, Garoppolo just earned himself an additional $350,000.

Even if Garoppolo departs in 2023, the 49ers are going to be on the hook for substantially more in financial assets, money they otherwise would have preferred to roll over into next season in order to both extend and re-sign top talent, such as Pro Bowl EDGE Nick Bosa, while also surrounding Trey Lance with as much weaponry as possible.

It’ll be much more difficult for the Niners to do that with Garoppolo poised to earn a lot more cash than the original $6.5 million.

Ramification No. 3: Trey Lance development experiences a massive stunt

San Francisco can hopefully navigate the salary-cap challenges, but easily the biggest setback will be the blow Trey Lance receives to his development.

Remember, we’re discussing a quarterback who attempted a mere 318 pass attempts at the collegiate level as a one-year starter at North Dakota State, which was in 2019, before playing just one lone game in 2020 before the pandemic canceled the Bison’s season.

Coupled with Lance having attempted only 102 passes at the pro level, all that chatter about Lance being inexperienced isn’t going away at all.

Lance desperately needed reps as a full-time starter this year, and his rushing prowess (as concerning as it might have been) is one of the reasons why he’s so unique right now as he develops into a better pocket passer.

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Instead of getting those, he’ll be focusing on rehabilitation, which likely cuts into his 2023 offseason program, too.

Another year lost with Lance on his affordable rookie year, another year in which the 49ers can fairly be questioned whether or not the decision to aggressively trade up for and draft him in 2021 will ever be warranted.

There can always be the hope Lance bounces back stronger than ever, yet it’s equally fair to suggest he’s trending towards being one of the bigger draft busts the Niners have had in the wake of this massive setback.