Analyzing Day 4 of the 2023 49ers QB Competition

Trey Lance needs a coach and a hug.

SANTA CLARA -- Here's what Trey Lance, Sam Darnold and Brandon Allen did on Day 4 of 49ers training camp. Keep in mind, Brock Purdy did not practice today. He'll be back tomorrow.

TREY LANCE

Split reps with Sam Darnold. Which means half the time Lance played against the first stringers, and half the time he played against the second-stringers. And Lance played well at first. He completed his first three throws -- a 25-yard completion to George Kittle, a five-yard check down to Ty Davis-Price in the red zone and a nice 10-yard completion over the middle to Chris Conley in the red zone. Lance even scrambled for a touchdown. He looked confident and upbeat. Then he made one mistake -- he fumbled a snap -- and instantly began to struggle. On the next play, third and 8, he threw downfield to Elijah Mitchell, who was covered well by Drake Jackson, and Jackson broke up the pass. Lance immediately spun around to look at Kyle Shanahan for approval, as if to ask, "That's where you wanted me to throw it, right?" or, "That was a good pass, wasn't it?" And Shanahan just looked away. Stared at his playbook. Gave zero feedback. Lance seemed like a kid looking to his father for approval and getting none. Maybe that's how Mike Shanahan treated Kyle when he was young. Kyle acts like nothing Lance does is good enough. Which is strange considering Kyle traded three first-round picks for Lance and then handed him the team last year. At one point, Kyle loved Lance. Now, he's into Sam Darnold, calls him the next Steve Young. Lance must wonder what he did to make Kyle stop loving him. Later during practice, Lance completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Chris Conley and seemed to regain his confidence. But on the next play. Lance airmailed a five-yard pass to Deebo Samuel, then got his next pass batted down at the line of scrimmage. And that was the end of his day. Overall, he completed 4 of 7 passes, threw for a TD and rushed for a TD, and still probably feels like he didn't impress Shanahan. I feel so bad for Lance. He needs a coach and a hug.

SAM DARNOLD

Completed 7 of 9 pass attempts and took a sack. Threw two touchdown passes in the red zone to Brandon Aiyuk, then threw a third touchdown pass to Aiyuk when he ran a slant route and then sprinted through the defense for a long score. Overall, Darnold got to target Aiyuk four times, Deebo Samuel twice, Jauan Jennings once and Elijah Mitchell once. Which means that Darnold always threw to starters even when he played against the second-string defense. As opposed to Trey Lance, who got to target Kittle once, Samuel once, Chris Conley twice, Ty Davis-Price once and Aiyuk a whopping zero times. Which means Lance mostly played with backups even when he faced the first-string defense. And he didn't get to play with Christian McCaffrey, who conveniently takes the day off whenever Brock is out. Plus Lance didn't get to throw to Aiyuk, who has been a cheat code in camp this year. Today, only Darnold and Allen got to throw to Aiyuk. Seems unfair. You'd almost think the 49ers are trying to make Lance look worse than he is.

BRANDON ALLEN

Completed just two of four pass attempts, but threw two nice touchdown passes in the red zone. First, he hit Aiyuk running a slant for a touchdown. Next, Allen caught a snap that bounced once, picked it up, rolled to his right and fired a touchdown pass to Ray-Ray McCloud. Allen looked like Purdy on this play. Watch Shanahan give Allen first-string reps in a few days just to confuse everyone.