What the 49ers Learned from the Trey Lance Trade

It sounds like Lynch learned that he and Kyle Shanahan most likely would have been fired if they hadn't lucked into Brock Purdy.

Apr 29, 2021; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Trey Lance (North Dakota State) poses with a jersey after being / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

SANTA CLARA -- John Lynch held his pre-draft press conference today and was asked what the 49ers learned from their disastrous trade for Trey Lance. Here's what Lynch said, courtesy of the 49ers P.R. department.

LYNCH: “I think first of all, we have an ownership that's very supportive and they support us greatly. Jed, John, Denise, Jenna, Mara [York] they believe in [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] and I and our leadership. And they believe when we think something's going to make us better, they say, go for it. And they don't give us a lot of restrictions there and that's comforting to know we can go be bold and do things like that. And yeah, we gave up a lot. We did it for reasons that we had and motivations and it didn't work out. But thank God for Mr. Irrelevant [laughter]. He helped us. And I always am careful of this because Trey Lance's story hasn't been written yet. He's in Dallas right now and I still think Trey's got good football in him. We'll see. That will play out. But I think also the freedom when you've done something and you feel like maybe it can improve us to move on, we aren't beholden to, well we drafted the guy, we’ve just got to stick it out. We can do the things we want to do. And I think that's served us well and people can comment on the thought process that went into it. We certainly study it, say what went right, what went wrong, and we do that with all our picks. But I think we're in a real good place as a football team, as an organization, and we’ve got to find a way to get a little bit better. And that's the focus of this whole off season. And this draft is an awesome opportunity to do just that.”

GRANT'S TAKE: It sounds like Lynch learned that he and Kyle Shanahan most likely would have been fired if they hadn't lucked into Brock Purdy. Purdy saved their jobs. If it wasn't for him, they would have been choosing between the current third-string quarterback for the Cowboys (Lance) and the current second-string quarterback for the Rams (Jimmy Garoppolo).

Thank God for Mr. Irrelevant, indeed.