Ex-49ers QB Trey Lance continues NFL career as backup

After four seasons, and at just 24 years old, the former North Dakota State prospect has morphed from a promising coaching project to a backup journeyman. The Niners famously traded three first-round picks and a third-rounder to select Lance No. 3 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, which yielded just four starts over his two years in San Francisco. He spent most of his time as a backup behind Jimmy Garoppolo, and later Brock Purdy, though the latter happened because of an ankle injury he picked up early in his second season.

Purdy’s ascendance gave the Niners no reason to keep Lance around, so they traded him to the Cowboys for a fourth-round pick. In Dallas, he was a healthy scratch throughout 2023 and started the final game of the 2024 season — he threw for 244 yards and completed 20 of his 34 passes — although his start was left up in the air until game time.

It briefly looked like his time in the league might be coming to a close when he was placed on the negotiation list of the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, allowing the team to try to sign the young quarterback. 

But after Friday’s report, it seems he’s still an NFL player, for at least one more season, with an opportunity to improve what’s left of his stock in Los Angeles. The question becomes how many chances he’ll realistically get to actually do that, as Heinicke was the Chargers’ second-string quarterback last season, and he has produced a lot more on the field throughout his career than Lance has. All signs seem to point toward another bench role for the man worth a king’s ransom in draft capital just a little under four years ago.