Analyzing Day 3 of the 49ers Quarterback Competition

Analyzing the best and worst performances from Day 3 of the San Francisco 49ers quarterback competition.

Here's the blow-by-blow from Day 3 of the 49ers quarterback competition between Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance.

JIMMY GAROPPOLO

Completed 6 of 11 pass attempts (55 percent), which isn't good. Also completed just two passes that traveled more than five yards past the line of scrimmage, which is typical for Garoppolo. And despite all the short throws, he still missed almost half of his attempts, which is disheartening for any team that might want to trade for Garoppolo. 

Here's what happened on this 11 pass attempts.

1. Held the ball too long in the pocket before he threw an incomplete checkdown pass behind Trey Sermon.

2. Completed a five-yard pass to Mohamed Sanu running a slant.

3. Completed a five-yard checkdown to Raheem Mostert.

4. Completed a five-yard checkdown to Sermon.

5. Completed a 15-yard pass to Sanu after avoiding a blitzing Fred Warner. This was Garoppolo's best throw of the day.

6. Completed a two-yard checkdown to Sanu.

7. Threw an incomplete pass behind George Kittle who was running a dig route.

8. Threw an incomplete pass to Sanu who was running an out route against K'Waun Williams. Garoppolo's pass led Sanu too far.

9. Overthrew an open Deebo Samuel running a deep crossing route. Incomplete.

10. Completed a 15-yard pass to Kittle who was covered by Tim Harris Jr., the worst player in the secondary.

11. Threw an incomplete pass to Deebo Samuel running a slant.

TREY LANCE

Completed 5 of 10 passes, and almost got intercepted by a linebacker on his final throw. Which means this was Lance's worst day of camp so far. But he also threw a 60-yard touchdown pass to Deebo Samuel, which was by far the best throw of the day. It was Lance's second long touchdown pass of camp so far. Garoppolo has thrown none.

Here's what happened on Lance's 10 attempts.

1. Threw an ugly one-hopper to George Kittle over the middle. Lance's first throw usually is his worst throw.

2. Completed a 20-yard pass over the middle to Bennie Fowler. The pass was an absolute rocket -- it traveled on a line to the receiver. Lance has the strongest arm a 49ers quarterback has had since Colin Kaepernick.

3. Threw an incomplete pass to River Cracraft running a deep out. Marcell Harris leaped and tipped the ball away. Lance needed to use touch to loft the pass over Harris' head.

4. Scrambled out of the pocket to his left, ran to the sideline, flipped his hips and fired a 20-yard incomplete pass up the sideline to rookie tight end Josh Pederson, who was blanketed by Jared Mayden.

5. Completed a 15-yard pass to Sanu running a curl route over the middle. Another rocket.

6. Completed a 15-yard pass to Deebo Samuel running a curl route over the middle. Lance threw the ball so hard, Samuel almost dropped it.

7. Srcambled to his right and completed a five-yard checkdown pass to Ross Dwelley.

8. Completed a 60-yard touchdown bomb to Samuel. It was a play-action pass. Lance rolled to his right, stopped, and threw back across the field to his left. Garoppolo couldn't make that throw in his dreams. His arm isn't strong enough.

9. On third and 10, fired a strike over the middle to Richie James Jr., who dropped his second pass of the morning.

10. Telegraphed a short pass over the middle to Brandon Aiyuk. Middle linebacker Jonas Griffith read Lance's eyes and reached up to intercept the pass, but could not hold onto Lance's fastball.

Check out this video I shot of Garoppolo and Lance throwing passes on Day 3 of camp.


Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.