Kyle Shanahan wants Trey Lance to ‘let it rip’ and be less hesitant moving forward

The return of football means that the internet is full of extensive breakdowns from “experts.” Some have agendas, while others call it how they see it. When you watch Trey Lance’s first half, you can see the areas where he needs to improve. It’s also easy to continuously bag on a player who needs to play to get better.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan made it clear that he wanted to see Trey “let it rip” on multiple occasions, and that Lance was hesitant throughout the half. There were a few throws that, if you’re going to be a starter in this league, you must pull the trigger on.

That can be true while acknowledging the offensive line and Lance’s supporting cast didn’t do him any favors. There was a play where Jordan Mason had an option route out of the backfield, but ran into the same spot as the tight end, which forced Lance to hold the ball and resulted in a sack.

On the first third down of the game, Ross Dwelley drifted on his option route when Lance was ready to throw, and forced confusion, eventually leading to a sack. Still, that’s a throw Trey needs to be confident enough in to pull the trigger, according to Shanahan:

“Yeah, Trey’s got to make that throw still to move the chains. Dwelley didn’t make it easy on him. It’s an option route. It was zone. You should hook up decisively right there on the numbers and that’s what Trey was expecting and that’s what we wanted Dwelley to do. And Trey was aggressively ripping that. That was one play he wasn’t hesitating on early, that was real good. And Dwelley just surprised him a little bit, which does happen at times and then it threw Trey off. So, Trey still should have made it. Dwelley could have made it a lot easier on him.”

Here’s my version of how Lance performed against the Raiders:

There’s plenty for Trey to build on, and it was evident he was playing with more of a sense of urgency as the game went along. But Lance is running out of time (reps) with the 49ers, so he must make the most of these last two preseason games.