Kyle Shanahan says the team is committed to Trey Lance; calls the whole captain vote a joke

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan joined KNBR Friday morning, saying, “I know I enjoyed it in the background, just watching the score,” of the Rams game on Thursday night.

It’s only Week 1, but that’s a tone-setter. Matthew Stafford’s arm looks toast. Los Angeles couldn’t block, run, or rely on anyone outside of Cooper Kupp. The Niners had to be licking their chops watching that game.

Shanahan, as always, had to talk about his quarterbacks. When asked if he was fully committed to Trey Lance since the team brought back Jimmy Garoppolo:

Guys, this is Trey’s first year starting for us. We were letting go a $24 million starting quarterback to do that. We got him back for a backup price. I don’t think that has to do with not having faith in your starter.

That’s the tone of someone frustrated from the same questions and the obvious disconnect between those on the outside and those in the locker room. In Kyle’s mind, the team got a bargain for Garoppolo. That’s why he remains on the roster.

He’s repeatedly stated that this is Trey’s team and even said both quarterbacks know Lance has the keys to the offense. But, as we’ve seen this week, it hasn’t stopped analysts from predicting Lance would lose his job.

Shanahan discussed how Garoppolo not landing elsewhere is why they went in the direction to bring him back. He also wasn’t too happy about Lance receiving criticism for not being named a captain:

“And the whole captain vote is kind of a joke to me. Bosa finally got enough votes to get up to No. 6 and look at those six people in front of Trey. I think they were all pretty worthy of that vote, and just to give it to a guy in his first year because he’s a quarterback, the only reason we would hae done that is to avoid questions in articles. And that’s really not what we do. We tried to do what the team votes for. If I would have guessed the votes, I would have guessed he would have been right where he was at, so I got really no problem with it at all.”

Kyle Juszczyk has been a captain before. Deebo Samuel, coming off a historical season, wasn’t named a captain. Yet, because of the position he plays, there was a mild uproar about Lance not being named a captain.

Samuel and Juszczyk play as large of a role as anyone on offense outside of the quarterback. Also, they’re proven stars in this league. It’s a silly argument, and I understand why Shanahan says it’s a joke.

We focus on these topics when there aren’t games to analyze. Thankfully, football is here.