The 49ers quarterback drama isn’t going to subside until Trey Lance proves he’s the guy, and Wednesday was another example of that.
Lance was not named as one of the 49ers’ six team captains, leading some to scratch their heads and ask how the QB wasn’t included. Kyle Shanahan said that Lance finished seventh in voting but that the number was capped at six, as that’s the amount of players who are allowed to go out for the coin toss.
That might be true, but 49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco doesn’t see that as a totally legitimate excuse as to why Lance couldn’t be a captain.
“I think the 49ers have had seven captains in the past and yesterday Kyle Shanahan announced they had six captains,” Maiocco said on KNBR. “Why six captains? ‘Eh, that’s the way I want it.’ Now that’s kind of an arbitrary number until you realize the guy who was seventh in the voting was Trey Lance.”
Still, Maiocco doesn’t think too much should be read into it, and that Shanahan simply wants Lance to earn his stripes.
“Kyle Shanahan has carte blanche,” Maiocco continued. “He can do whatever the heck he wants and he says that he didn’t fudge the vote, he counted the votes, that’s how it turned out. I think that he wanted Trey Lance to kind of earn it. He’ll be making his third NFL start. Yes, he plays quarterback, yes he’s shown to be a very good leader.
“But I think before they make that kind of official, put a C on his chest, I just think they want him to earn it, and I think there’s probably also an element too of Jimmy [Garoppolo] was a leader last year. I think it was just not right for that.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Murph & Mac weekdays from 6 – 10 a.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.
