Before he could enjoy the 49ers’ 27-7 victory, or even his own stellar play, Talanoa HufangaEspecially sought after Trey Lance. He prayed together with the quarterback.
After similar journeys to the Amazon, Lance and Hufanga arrived in Santa Clara. NFL. Journeys grounded in family, humility and faith that move mountains. Two small-town spirit with the greatest of dreams. They met at the same summit. Lance is 15 months younger than Lance. However, Lance and the second-year safety climbed together when they were young men trying to make their mark in a group of mature men. This was their year. They were both anointed starters. Their grind helped them reach higher goals. They were both replacing veterans who had set a high standard to be met. They took the field for Sunday’s home opener at Levi’s with designs for a breakthrough.
So Hufanga knows what was lost when Lance went down and his broken right ankle wouldn’t allow him to get back up. He understands how opportunity is among the NFL’s most precious commodities, and Lance just lost a season’s worth.
“I’m very blessed just to be around him,” Hufanga said. “We were the youngest guys on the team last year. Because we were competing, we always had a chip in our shoulders. We had to raise our game. As young men, we matured. … Just prayed for his spirits, for his health, for his safety. It’s a time of adversity for him.”
Lance was No. Lance was ranked No. 3 in 2021 and signed a $34.1 guaranteed contract. There is a limit to how much sympathy he can get. But in the world of football, it’s hard not to feel like he got a rough deal.
Lance simply hasn’t gotten the time to develop. His sophomore season at North Dakota State was an exciting one, but his junior season was overshadowed by the pandemic. He is then selected by a Super Bowl candidate in the draft. Obviously, that’s a good thing, to land with a team that can surround him with talent. One thing that comes with patience is the one-year limit. That’s a perk most young quarterbacks get — the space to take lumps, to learn under low expectations. That wasn’t Lance’s journey. He walked on to a team that couldn’t afford to suffer through the inevitable struggles of a rookie. He was injured and the team didn’t want to mix him in. His rookie season was not easy. He broke his finger in preseason and had to have surgery on his left knee.
Lance also hasn’t been put in a situation to succeed. Lance, a 49ers veteran quarterback, never gave up on him, even after he was handed the franchise to Lance. He’s always worked against an inordinate amount of pressure, the kind that can feel like a weighted vest for young quarterbacks. His growth has always been in the background of winning games. Thus, he didn’t inherit life in a system designed around him.
Lance suffered a serious injury on Sunday as he attempted to run up the middle for a quarterback. This was his third trip to be a running back in the shotgun line. He was first sent on a third and 6 from the line. Seattle 34 on the opening drive, he ran for seven yards against the Seahawks’ nickel package. Three plays later, he ran for seven yards against the Seahawks’ nickel package. After only four yards, he was popped.
It was the third time it happened, and seven snaps later it was second-and-8 at the Seattle 21. Fake handoff Ray-Ray McCloud III didn’t move the defense. He got two yards faster than the Seahawks tackle Bryan MoneLance and linebacker snatched Cody Barton blasted him backwards. His ankle gave out under the weight.
Support is shared by teammates @treylance09 🙏 pic.twitter.com/8HZucHIL68
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 19, 2022
Lance made as many passes on Sunday as possible up the middle. It was an emblem of Shanahan using him. This was Lance’s eighth pro game and fourth start for the 49ers. He has 54 carries, and 102 pass attempts. That means more than a third of his snaps when he wasn’t handing off the ball, he was running it. They were mostly intentional. And twice now, it’s led to injury.
Jimmy Garoppolohe came in and, on six of his seven first snaps, the 49ers gave up the ball. This was a clear indication of how uncomfortable Shanahan felt managing Lance’s passing game. After Lance was down, Garoppolo went 3 for 3. The series ended with a 38 yard touchdown pass to a wide open Shanahan. Ross Dwelley.
“Less QB runs,” Seattle linebacker Jordyn BrooksThis was what was expected to happen when Lance fell. “Trey Lance, they like to do a lot of QB runs with him. So they got away from that and passed a little bit more.”
Shanahan claimed that the QB runs in the middle, so he called on the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Lance to play the same type of play Buffalo’s Josh AllenHe runs all the time. Allen is a good runner with a 20-pound advantage on Lance. Allen can also sling it. Allen’s ability to run is just a side effect. Allen was a rookie and averaged almost four passes per rush. It’s up to nearly five now. Lance averages less than two passes per rush.
“That’s something we were gonna do, and something we were going to continue to do,” Kyle Shanahan said. “That’s a football play we believe in and something we believe gives him a chance to be real successful in this league.”
Lance is essentially being forced to be a player he’s probably not — a run-first quarterback. He doesn’t get the luxury of developing at his own pace, of playing through his mistakes, of learning how to play from the pocket. He was up for anything. He did whatever it took to get onto the field. All that was necessary to give the stars and veterans another shot at the Super Bowl. And it’s going to cost him another year.
No, this isn’t just another football injury. It certainly doesn’t feel that way, and it didn’t in the 49ers locker room. This one is harder to swallow due to the context. This is a bad break for a guy who’s had a few too many already. This is a potential threat to his bright future. Lance was poised to take control of the Bay. Trey Area. That possibility may now be gone, and it is not his fault.
“It’s going to be a test for him, mentally,” linebacker Azeez Al-ShaairLance. “He’s going to go through a lot. Some of it, he’s going to have to do on his own, and he’ll have to look within himself. But also it’s on us. That’s our brother. Make sure we’re checking up on him, keeping in contact with him. When you’re injured and the season’s going, everybody’s so locked in on the week. You often get left behind. So I think it’s being proactive for all of us, his teammates, his brothers.”
This is not the first time that the 49ers have gone through this, losing their starter. However, this time it was with a No. 3 pick. Never with a quarterback who cost them three of their first-rounders. Never with the taste or smell of a Super Bowl trip in them.
Lance will have played 27 games in his career since graduating from Marshall High School in 2018. That’s an average of 5.4 games in five seasons. If he wasn’t ready for Shanahan to open up the playbook this year, he won’t be next year now, either. He will have less patience. Were there less chances? He will have less chance. They’ll just have him under contract for two years, with one, in essence, being the rookie season of which he keeps getting deprived.
The NFL is known for creating compartmentalized minds. The NFL trains players to think. Next play, Next game, next man up. With Garoppolo in the wings, the 49ers are poised to turn the page in a way that is unlike any other. But even a veteran like Trent Williams, a 34-year-old cancer survivor in his 13th season, said he needed the youngsters to help him turn the page after seeing Lance’s ankle turned in a gruesome direction.
“It was kind of hard to look at,” Williams said. “To see somebody that you care about, you love, you see every day, a young guy — it definitely has its effect.”
His career doesn’t have to be over from this. His career still has a lot of potential, even if his ankle heals. People who saw him work with him to prepare for the season, and got to know his personality, believe he can get through it.
They believe in the promises he makes. They trust in his ability to work. They believe in his mental strength.
“Once it happens, you feel like your life is over for a certain amount of time,” said Nick BosaHe sustained a season-ending injury in Week 2, 2020. “It’s not going to be easy, but he will be back, and he’ll be fine.”
“He’s a tough dude,” Al-Shaair said. “He’s going to get through this like he’s gotten through everything else.”
But first, it’s going to cost him the collection of big plays he needs to prove to himself and his coaches he’s a star in the making. It’s going to cost him all those hard lessons, and extra coaching sessions over bad film, that young quarterbacks need to grow into good quarterbacks. It’s going to cost him the credibility he could’ve built up, in those moments his veteran teammates can witness how he’s built.
Even if he recovers fully, in the NFL, you don’t always get those moments back.
(Photo: Kyle Terada / USA Today)
