49ers film room: Trey Lance struggles in preseason finale and how Kyle Shanahan can make life easier for him
Trey Lance played most of the first half and left us with many more questions than answers.
As the subhead of the article says, we uncovered no answers as to what Trey Lance will look like this season that we did not already know. In week 1, Trey looked confident and poised and hardly rattled. He had an off-target throw in that one, but otherwise looked comfortable operating in the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield until the last possible second.
In the Houston game, he finished 7-11 with just 42 yards passing. The passing yards were the result of taking the check-down but his longest completed pass through the air was a 14 yard completion to Malik Turner on “Drift” that should have been at least a 30-40 yard completion with all the space Turner had to catch and run. But the pass was low and behind him with Turner scooping it up off the grass.
At other times, he was dropping his eyes and not taking the easy throws that were there. In a very real sense, this who Trey Lance is right now and this what we are going to see a lot of this season as he figures out how to be an NFL quarterback with all the tools and traits he possesses. We are going to see the explosive pass plays, the effortless scrambles to get first downs when no one is open, and all the usual struggles he went through Thursday night in Houston.
That should be expected. He had very little quarterback experience coming into the NFL and he played in 2.5 games last season. Right now there is no reason to hit the panic button and we need to give Lance at least two to three years to fully see what he will develop into. The best case scenario is his development trajectory mirrors Josh Allen in Buffalo. Allen was a sub-60% completion passer for two seasons yet made it to the playoffs in year in two. In year three he exploded and has been a top-5 quarterback ever since.
But for that to happen, what is it that must Lance work through and improve on if the 49ers hope he can achieve that level of play?
Where Lance struggled
Dropping his eyes
A common mistake young quarterbacks make, and make often, is not keeping their eyes downfield when the pocket starts to get muddy. Lance did this several times against the Texans pass rush. And as soon as it happens, the play is all but over. There is virtually no chance to recover once the quarterback takes his eyes off the routes.
The 49ers are running “rider,” a play action shot play that creates an explosive pass by either throwing the go route (first read) or hitting the deep crosser under it (second read) in the space vacated by the deep safety. The quarterback’s read is high to low and locating where the deep safety is at.
If the receiver is 1-on-1 with the corner with no safety help, the quarterback heaves it downfield. If the safety helps the corner on the go route, then the quarterback should come back to the second read and hit the wide open crosser.
Lance fakes the run, turns and locates the go route. I do not think he anticipated the safety being there because his hitches in the pocket, while being too quick, also looked like predetermined where he wanted to go and loaded his lower body to hit that deep shot.
Two things are wrong here: first, he needs to slow down his process in the pocket just a bit here. He took two big and fast hitch steps and stepped right into the pass rush. Second, he dropped his eyes as he did this.
Slowing down his footwork here would have enabled him to keep his eyes downfield and allowed his right tackle to block the edge defender, or at least keep himself out of the spin move a second or two longer for him to hit Deebo on the crosser. As Lance takes those hitch steps, he should already have confirmed the first read and be ready to hit Deebo on the crosser.
Two plays later, the pass rush appeared to spook him again and again Lance dropped his eyes and looked for his escape plan rather than seeing tight end George Kittle open on the shallow crosser. It’s 3rd-and-17 and all Kyle Shanahan is really doing is looking to get some yards back to give his punter room to pin the offense on their own side of the 50.
Ideally, Lance would have time to survey and hit the dagger route on this “dagger shallow” concept but this is not an ideal situation to be in and instead Lance should be looking for the check-down or crosser.
The pass rushers flash into the pocket and his eyes go down looking to escape. This is caused by Lance looking to run instead of hitching into the pocket. He’s quick enough and athletic enough to make the defenders miss with quick hitches. His feet staying planted in the turf would help to keep his eyes downfield to Kittle.
Instead he looks to run. Which is not necessarily a bad idea considering all the space he has to tuck it. But he does not tuck to run and instead looks to hit his check-down. It is admirable that still looks to pass but there will be times when it is better to tuck and run and this is one of those times.
Not anticipating throws
One of the benefits of shotgun drop back passing is it allows the quarterback a bit more time to survey the defense. It eliminates two drop back steps and gives the quarterback a better field of vision as he’s already at or near the point at which he drop back from under center. It should help Lance identify the coverage rotation and hit the throw he wants.
The Texans are rotating to cover-2 from a single high safety shell pre-snap as they so often did in this game. Lance’s first read is Kittle on the stick route. As he takes the snap, he is looking right and should see the safety bailing to a deep half, which should clue him into the underneath coverage and a throwing lane for the stick route between the flat corner and the seam dropper.
This should almost be an automatic read and throw but the pass rush gets through and Lance’s feet speed up his processing by forcing him to scramble. He should theoretically hit the top of his drop and throw to Kittle after he has identified the coverage. Instead he is unable too. On a positive note, he was able to get the ball out to his check-down and did not look to force a throw anywhere on the field.
Throwing mechanics
Lance’s mechanics have been the subject of much scrutiny in the offseason and through training camp. But he actually has some of the most refined and polished mechanics of any of the quarterbacks in his draft class outside of Mac Jones. And in the offseason he reworked his throwing motion to hold the ball lower (which explains the ball dipping to his waist when he throws and is not an issue).
But there’s one under discussed aspect of his throwing mechanics and that is his inconsistency in release height. His passes have been known to die on their trajectory and have a bit of wobble to them, more than they should. This could be a product of learning to work through the new arm path mechanics and figuring out his elbow height, which tends to be lower or higher from throw to throw and not consistent.
The play call is “drift” and is a Shanahan play action staple, a day-1 install pass in training camp, and probably their most often thrown play action pass. It is a simple concept that takes advantage of the linebackers crashing the line of scrimmage by running a drift route behind them in the vacated space.
This pass should be as routine as they come but Lance’s pass dips sharply on arrival to receiver Malik Turner (No. 17) at the hash. It certainly has enough velocity but it’s trajectory is likely altered due to Lance’s low elbow at his release point and where he ends up to throw the ball.
The cut-up below shows three broadcast clips of quarterbacks Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Aaron Rodgers throwing the drift route. All three quarterbacks have low elbows but only Lance’s and Garoppolo’s passes dip on arrival.
Rodgers pass does not, likely due to his ridiculous release but also because he only ends up about six yards behind the line of scrimmage when he throws. Lance ends up at about eight yards. On a quick throw like drift as the quarterback turns, the arm path and mechanics are sped up. But even Garoppolo’s pass doesn’t dip as much as Lance’s.
Everything else about Lance’s mechanics looks good. The trunk and hip rotation generates good velocity for the arm to follow. The front shoulder is closed off and pointed at the target, the front leg is planted and not stiff and the back leg helps the follow through.
And yet the pass dips as it arrives at Turner.
How Kyle Shanahan can help his quarterback
Pistol play action
One way Shanahan can make life a little easier for Lance is by setting him up in pistol or shotgun to run play action. Shotgun play action helped Jimmy Garoppolo, who was a very efficient gun play action passer.
The advantage of being in shotgun or pistol is it allows the quarterback to see the defense from the second the ball is snapped. He does not have to turn his back to execute the run fake, which speeds up the processing. It would be best to work those sorts of concepts in slowly.
The one disadvantage is that shotgun may not get the defenders to bite so easily but since the 49ers are a run heavy team out of the shotgun, this should not really be an issue. Even better would be to do this out of the pistol where the threat of a quarterback run adds an element the defense must be prepared to defend.
As previously stated above, Lance does struggle with turning his back and locating the coverage and receivers in a sped up process that under center play action typically thrusts a quarterback into. But Lance thrived in 2021 with pistol play action, hitting two big throws versus the Cardinals in his first start to Deebo.
This is the same play call as the play action pass in the first video above, “rider.” It is just flipped and run out of pistol instead of under center. Right away you can see Lance’s eyes downfield as he executes the run fake, allowing him to see the coverage drop and take away his first read, the go route.
The pressure gets through and ideally the quarterback would continue to hitch and reset but Lance climbs the pocket by sort of running up and firing to a wide open Deebo. If he resets, the throw might be cleaner but nonetheless you can see how right away he’s able to eliminate the progressions and still find the open receive.
Defined throws and half field reads
Giving Lance a series of defined throws and reads can also help to mitigate the amount of decision-making he would be responsible for each game while he learns to get comfortable in the offense. This worked well for Garoppolo in 2019 in his first full season and there is no reason to believe it cannot work for Lance.
Run-pass options and half field coverage reads while he learns the nuances of the playbook will serve this offense well with his arm strength and ability to create on the run.
Quarterbacks typically read a given pass play in one of two ways: 1) progression reads where the quarterback works across the field with his feet and eyes and surveys the routes in a pattern from first to last or 2) coverage reads where the read is cut down to an “if then” read where if a certain defender plays a high-low read a certain way, then throw to the receiver that’s made open by that defender’s decision.
I wrote about this earlier this past summer while detailing Shanahan’s spot dig concept that puts the hook/curl defender in conflict. If the defender plays the flat, throw the dig or seam route behind it, if the defender plays the dig or seam, throw the spot or route in the flat and keep the chains moving.
Another way to get Lance comfortable is through half field reads where the play call essentially has two separate pass concepts designed to be thrown versus certain coverages. The pre-snap eliminates one side by identifying the coverage and after the snap the quarterback picks the best route that’s open.
Here the play call is a good example of this. The 49ers motion to a 3x2 empty formation and are running a “shock” or “patriot” concept to the left in trips that’s a seam route sandwiched between two quick hitch routes and are running a “lion” double slants concept to the right.
Lance picks the double slants side primarily because the inside slant will occupy the hook/seam defender and the corner is playing with outside leverage on the outside slant and will not be able to affect the throw. The safety is shaded deep to that side and is not a factor. Lance rifles the ball to Deebo’s waist in stride between the triangle of defenders for a nice gain.
Outlook
It is okay to say that Trey Lance did not play well versus Houston but it also should not discount what we saw from him a few weeks ago versus Green Bay and last season in his limited reps. He played with a healthy offensive line and healthy skill position players and that is crucial to a young quarterback’s development becaues it will allow him to figure out the other stuff.
By no means does this game mean that this is always who Lance is going to be but the hot takes range widely from outright dismissal of his performance to using this performance in the preseason to confirm one’s priors about him being a bust. There are certainly a fair amount of fans in that second camp and it is just as unfair as spinning and dismissing what we can see with our own eyes. Give him time and let Shanahan work out the details. Just be prepared for a wild roller coaster of season that will be equal parts fun and maddening.