Cards on the table: Shanahan leans toward quarterback rotation with Garoppolo and Lance
Maybe it’s gamesmanship and misdirection, but 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is strongly hinting at a quarterback-by-committee approach as San Francisco chugs into the regular season with Jimmy Garoppolo and rookie Trey Lance.
Surely the Detroit Lions, San Francisco’s Week 1 opponent, are paying close attention with that game coming in less than two weeks.
San Francisco’s two-quarterback dynamic was seen last week on the practice field Wednesday and Thursday, and then during the first two series of the preseason finale Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders. It worked, as much as it could against backup defenders in a meaningless game. Both drives resulted in touchdowns and took 24 plays, combined.
“I think coming into it, it was weird at first, just having to process the whole thing,” Garoppolo said of the new quarterback rotation. “But after being out on the field, it was fun. When we’re clicking like that and the defense is scrambling like that, it makes it hard.”
The game began with Garoppolo and Lance splitting 10 snaps on the opening touchdown drive, which ended with Garoppolo diving head first across the goal line and into a pair of Raiders defenders. It didn’t seem like something Garoppolo would have done in the past when he was clearly the team’s only choice at starting quarterback before Lance came along.
“That’s Jimmy,” Shanahan said. “Jimmy’s got a linebacker mentality. ... That’s why guys fight for him.”
Garoppolo, of course, is the decidedly less athletic of the two, and Lance added his first rushing touchdown as a pro for good measure to cap the second possession.
The 49ers beat the Raiders, by the way, 34-10, as head coach Jon Gruden elected to leave most of his starters in Las Vegas.
Garoppolo and Lance ground it out
How effective could Shanahan’s offense be with Garoppolo starting and Lance getting mixed in? The results from Sunday were encouraging, albeit with the standard disclaimer: this is the preseason and the Raiders’ defense wasn’t exactly littered with stars.
“This run game,” running back Raheem Mostert said, “we can definitely do a lot more now that we have Trey.”
Lance’s first snap came on the 49ers’ fourth play. It was zone-read run to Mostert, who knifed through the left side of the defense for 16 yards. The threat of Lance’s legs appeared to cause the defense to react a step slow, allowing time for the speedy running back to eat yards up the right sideline. The 49ers ran for 53 yards on Lance’s first eight handoffs while the offense averaged 6.2 yards per play on the first two series during the rotation.
On Lance’s touchdown in the second quarter, the 49ers used receiver Jalen Hurd, a former running back in college, on a jet sweep fake. Then Lance faked a handoff to running back Trey Sermon before taking the lane to his right for an 2-yard score.
“We had the (defensive end) crash so it was probably one of the easiest rushing touchdowns I’ll ever have,” Lance said.
The 49ers ran all over the Raiders backups with 242 yards on 48 attempts, with eight players getting carries, including the two quarterbacks. Lance finished with 6-for-13 (with two drops from Hurd) for 46 yards. He added eight yards on six carries. Garoppolo only appeared in the first two series and completed 4 of 7 passes for 64 yards.
It could be that Sunday was a dry run for the regular season, with Lance getting 10 of 24 snaps during the first two possessions.
But Shanahan isn’t tipping his hand just yet while reiterating he has a “pretty good idea” of what his quarterback situation will like in Detroit.
“I guess we’ll have to see,” Shanahan said. “I don’t like playing this game but everyone keeps asking the question. I won’t just give you the answer just to satisfy the question. I think we got a pretty good idea, all along, I think our team does. I think I’m pretty good with it as long as I keep surviving the press conferences.”
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The mechanics of the quarterback switching went as planned, though things could change while playing in a raucous road environments in Detroit and Philadelphia to start the season, particularly after not playing in front of fans for the vast majority of the 2020 campaign.
Garoppolo mentioned dealing with the play clock, specifically, while trying to hear the personnel packages before entering the game, getting the play call and then relaying it to his teammates after running on the field from the sideline.
“I thought it kept getting better and better as we went, which is what you’re really trying to do,” Garoppolo said.
The 49ers would be bucking conventional wisdom if they end up playing Lance at the same rate he played Sunday — 10 of 24 snaps with the starters. NFL teams rarely play multiple quarterbacks. It could be that Lance plays a more specialized role, which Shanahan has hinted at recently in mentioning the dynamic between Drew Brees and Taysom Hill with the New Orleans Saints.
Both quarterbacks called the new-look rotation, “fun” with Garoppolo taking the high road in terms of how it could affect him personally.
“We had two successful drives with it, scored on both of them,” Garoppolo said. “It’s tough for defenses to handle that. I’ve never been in this situation, but just seeing it first hand here today, it’s hard on (defenses). Whatever’s best for the team. I’m here for it.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2021 at 7:04 AM.
