49ers notebook: QB battle remains unchanged after joint practices with Chargers
The 49ers’ two joint practices against Los Angeles Chargers this week had a chance to put a defining touch on the quarterback battle between incumbent starter Jimmy Garoppolo and rookie Trey Lance.
Instead, the practices featured more of the same from the previous two weeks of training camp. Neither Garoppolo or Lance did anything to significantly change their standing as coach Kyle Shanahan continues to lean towards starting Garoppolo on Week 1 against the Detroit Lions.
“They’re competing their assess off,” Shanahan said Thursday. “They’re doing a good job. It’s not about one guy versus the other guy. It’s about how good can Trey be, how good can Jimmy be?”
Lance, of course, made a big splash early in training camp with a handful of impressive practices, including two during the second week when he had two incompletions in team drills combined. But things have slowed down since then with the 21-year-old looking like a rookie in need of seasoning, which was apparent in his first exhibition game when he completed just 5 of 14 throws.
Friday’s practice marked a modest milestone for Lance. He played eight snaps behind the first-team offensive line after not getting more than two in any previous practice. He also threw the ball with that group for the first time.
Shanahan was not made available to reporters after Friday’s practice, but there’s a good chance he would have gone to one of his favorite sayings in review of Lance with the first team: “there was some good, some bad, and it was by no means perfect.”
Lance began by flipping a short pass to Deebo Samuel on a jet sweep that Shanahan considers a running play, though it would show up as a pass in a box score on Sundays. Then Lance handed it off to Raheem Mostert, ran a zone read up the middle, took a sack on a passing play, and took a designed quarterback keeper roughly 20 yards through the middle of the defense.
After a handoff to running back JaMycal Hasty, Lance connected with Samuel on a pass over the middle and then hit wideout Mohamed Sanu on a short through toward the left sideline, where Sanu turned up field for a modest gain.
Lance on the day completed just three of eight passes downfield (not counting Samuel’s jet sweep) while Garoppolo finished just 3 of 7, including an interception to star safety Derwin James who undercut a stick route near the goal line from George Kittle and returned it some 99 yards for a would-be touchdown.
Red zone interceptions have been a troubling theme from Garoppolo during camp. He tossed one to rookie cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. on Friday and has been picked by 49ers linebacker Fred Warner during red-zone drills in Santa Clara.
Garoppolo will likely play a series or two on Sunday when the Chargers and 49ers square off in their second preseason games, with Lance likely getting a similar workload to last week’s contests against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The two practices against the Chargers before Sunday’s game had a chance for Garoppolo to separate from Lance, or Lance to make a big push on Garoppolo for the starting job.
But it didn’t seem like much happened on the field in Costa Mesa to change what we already know: Garoppolo is a capable starter, when healthy, with a propensity for head scratching mistakes. Lance, meanwhile, is uber talented and a superior athlete, but likely needs refinement before Shanahan would trust him to start games for a team trying to win a difficult division like the NFC West.
“I think (for) both of them,” Shanahan said, “when you go through camp, you go through games, you go through practices, it’s up and down throughout the whole thing. So that’s why I don’t sit and go ‘Who’s ahead of the other, what’s going on?’ after each practice. They both bring different elements to our team. Both of them, I believe, can play at a high level and I’m trying to see which one does that the best for us.”
For now, it seems likely Lance will have a minor role in the offense while Garoppolo remains the favorite to start. Lance could be used situationally to offer defenses an entirely different skill set to account for: a quarterback who can run the zone read or quarterback power — who could also chuck deep passes accurately off of play action.
That might not be ideal for fans clamoring for Lance to start sooner rather than later. But it might also be best for his development while he continues to hone his footwork, accuracy and avoiding sacks, which Shanahan indicated were areas to improve after Lance’s first game action last week.
That’s not to say the joint practices between the Chargers and 49ers were a complete dud, just that nothing happened to change the way Shanahan feels about his quarterback situation.
Lance will have another shot at changing things Sunday in the second preseason game. After that, the 49ers are expected to have two more practices open to reporters in full, Wednesday and Thursday, before team drills will be closed off as they are in the regular season.
Practice notes
Rookie safety Talanoa Hufanga got his most extensive action with the starters on Friday while veteran Tavon Wilson was given the day off. I didn’t watch the defensive side practice Friday, so I asked defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans about Hufanga’s session and where he sits in the competition to start.
“Talanoa, he did fine,” Ryans said. “Still is a young player, he still has some mistakes to clean up and has some things that he’s still working through, but Talanoa is doing fine. He’s progressing. I see him getting better every week so he just keeps progressing, he’s on the right track.”
Hufanga stood out in his preseason debut last week against Kansas City for making plays on special teams and regularly being around the ball with the second team defense. He had two tackles on defense and a game high two special teams stops.
Hufanga could play himself into a starting job given Jaquiski Tartt’s long-standing turf toe injury.
Ryans said Hufanga earned his work with the starters, “because of the plays he’s made. He continues to progress. … He just has to keep honing in on his techniques and his fundamentals to just keep getting better every day. That’s the goal for all of our rookies.”
The 49ers who didn’t practice on Friday: cornerback Emmanuel Moseley (hamstring), receiver Jalen Hurd (knee tendinitis), Wilson, running back Elijah Mitchell (abductor), linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (elbow), defensive end Alex Barrett (undisclosed), guard Aaron Banks (sprained AC joint), left tackle Trent Williams (knee swelling), tackle Shon Coleman (knee) and defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw (shoulder).
