To be the best, you have to learn from the best, and it looks like 49ers quarterback Trey Lance is on the right path toward making an inspiring comeback in 2023 with a little help from one of the flashiest QBs in the league. T
Lance worked out with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and two-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes in April, and apparently, his throwing motion afterward significantly improved.
QB coach Jeff Christensen worked closely with Lance at the start of the offseason and, after a lengthy recovery following a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2 of the 2022 season, told The Athletic’s Matt Barrows that Lance’s “biggest breakthrough” came while working alongside Mahomes last month.
“I said, ‘Watch this. Watch what he does here,’” Christensen told Barrows as he remembered the conversation with Lance. “It was something I was telling him to do that he wasn’t quite doing. And then he saw Patrick apply it perfectly. And I think that visual buy-in, that mental buy-in, helped him past that mental hump.”
“And to his credit, he just kept getting better,” he continued. “[Over] the last seven days, every day was a substantial jump.” After the 49ers traded up and gave up three first-round picks to select Lance with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Lance’s start to his NFL career hasn’t gone quite as planned.
The 23-year-old broke his right index finger in San Francisco’s 2021 preseason finale and, according to 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, it wasn’t fully healed in 2022. Lance had to “completely change” his grip and it took him a while to adjust.
While trying to fully recover from his finger injury, the young quarterback sustained the Week 2 ankle injury, which required two separate surgeries and a long journey back to recovery that still continues.
But heading into his third season with the 49ers, his finger and ankle no longer are a problem.
