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Trey Lance's Mobility is the Key to Improving the 49ers Offense

Trey Lance's unique skillset (and Jimmy Garoppolo's limited skillset) will provide a path to help the 49ers improve their high-powered offense.

Ben Meyerson

In this story:

Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo are dissimilar, but that doesn’t mean the 49ers need to overhaul their offense.

In reality the 49ers can do what they’ve already been doing with the Garoppolo offense and continue to expand it, adding downfield throws. 

Run Game Improvement

Last season the team ranked 29th in the league in passing attempts and 5th in rushing attempts. When you watch them play it’s obvious they are a run first team, but they were not as efficient in the run game as many thought.

While the Niners are Top-5 in attempts, the team ranked only 16th in rushing yards per attempt in '21. The threat alone of Lance running the ball will alleviate some of the struggles in the ground game.

 His presence of being the starting QB (for the run game) is just so diametrically opposed to the effect Garoppolo had. Garoppolo was a non-factor.

In the two full games that Lance started (vs ARI WK5, vs HOU WK17) San Francisco averaged 5.4 yards and 4.7 yards per rushing attempt respectively - while the season average was 4.3 yards per attempt.

They also ran the ball more in those games with a run rate of 55% for those two games with the season average being 49%.

For Shanahan, who has become the master of the run game, Lance will only add to his arsenal of weapons and make life easier for those playing with him.

Pass Game Improvement

In 2012 Kyle worked with dual-threat QB Robert Griffin. The Shanahans were able to marry their run game with his unique skill set. That season they ranked 2nd in the league in net passing yards per attempt and 2nd yards per rush attempt.

Lance is not a one to one comparison for Griffin, in fact they’re very different, but they can both provide a more balanced running and passing attack for coordinators who are so run oriented.

With Lance he can expand the dimensions of the San Francisco offense that became so focused on attacking the intermediate part of the field.

The Niners will continue to attack the middle of the field, while adding a downfield component that just was not there with Garoppolo. 

This past season just 7% of Garoppolo's attempts were 20+ yards downfield, while for Lance (in the small sample size) 18% of his attempts were 20+ yards downfield.

Lance will also have one significant advantage over Garoppolo, his mobility gives him a much larger margin of error. If Garoppolo were to miss a read on a given play he would not have the ability keep the play going and make an off-schedule play. 

With mobile QBs it is often the case (see Russell Wilson) that their mobility can lead them into more sacks (above the average) than pressure is allowing. 

With Lance that's where he succeeds as a mobile QB. His ability to evade pressure and keep his eyes downfield was one of his most elite traits this season.

For reference Garoppolo's pressure to sack rate was 19.8% this past season.

If Lance were to miss the initial read, he could still make a potentially negative play into a positive one. 

With Lance he still needs to find that balance of deciding when to run and when to make the downfield play. Too often he would not be decisive enough when deciding to take off for the run. 

But his ability and skillset will help improve the 49ers offense right away and provide a path to expand it even further.

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Ben Meyerson
BEN MEYERSON

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