Getty Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes worked out with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance in early April down in Texas, which was captured in a video that was shared by Preston Smith Photography’s Instagram.
And according to private quarterbacks coach Jeff Christensen, that time spent with Mahomes helped Lance make a major breakthrough.
“I said, ‘Watch this. Watch what he does here,’” Christensen told The Athletic’s Matt Barrows of what he remembers telling 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.”
Once Lance saw Mahomes do what Christensen was trying to teach him, there was apparently significant progress from that point on when it comes to Lance’s throwing mechanics.
“And to his credit he just kept getting better,” Christensen continued. “(Over) the last seven days, every day was a substantial jump.”
Trey Lance at Pivotal Point of NFL Career
The significance of Trey Lance working with Patrick Mahomes down in Texas doesn’t just stem from Lance reaching out to another NFL quarterback for help. The clips that were shown of Lance working out at TCU were also the first ones that reached the public eye since he broke his ankle during the 2022 season, and showed a significant step in his recovery.
Lance, 22, was selected third overall by San Francisco in the 2021 NFL Draft. Since then, the same issues reside with Lance that were with him leading up to draft day: He hasn’t played very much football.
After being a starter for just 18 games at North Dakota State, Lance only played in eight regular season games during the first two years of his NFL career. During his rookie season, Lance sat behind Jimmy Garoppolo, who guided the 49ers to the NFC Championship during the 2021 season. Lance had an opportunity to win the starting job his rookie season, but a broken pinkie in the last week of the preseason put to rest the competition between Lance and Garoppolo for the QB1 role.
Year 2 was another opportunity for Lance to take hold of the starting quarterback job in San Francisco but failed to do so, yet again due to injury.
#49ers QB Trey Lance appeared to suffer a significant right ankle injury on this play
His potential injury and return timeline, from our panel of doctors.
⏩https://t.co/Z4OdVhhplF
Lance suffered the broken ankle in Week 2 of the 2022 regular season, which then thrust Garoppolo back into the starting quarterback role. But after Garoppolo suffered a broken foot in December, it was rookie seventh-round pick Brock Purdy that became the 49ers’ starter and surpassed all expectations bestowed upon him from that point on.
Purdy went 5-0 as the starting quarterback during the final five games of the regular season and completed 65% of his passes for 569 yards, 3 touchdowns, and had 0 turnovers during the playoffs according to Pro Football Reference. Unfortunately, Purdy’s spectacular run came to an abrupt end during the NFC Championship against the Philadelphia Eagles when he was knocked out of the game early in the first quarter due to an elbow injury.
Though Purdy might not be fully healthy for the start of 2023 training camp, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has already made it clear that Purdy will enter the 2023 season as the team’s starting quarterback.
That means Lance with have to show out this summer and rip the starting job out of the hands of Purdy if he wants it. He will also have to fight off recently-added veteran Sam Darnold throughout the process.
Patrick Mahomes a Great Role Model for Trey Lance
As a player that had to break down his mechanics and rebuild them from scratch this offseason, there’s no better player in the NFL that Trey Lance could have worked with this offseason than Patrick Mahomes. Kansas City’s superstar quarterback is essentially the standard for what Lance should be striving to be in the NFL.
Both players have very strong arms and possess a fair amount of athleticism. But the similarities don’t stop there, according to Jeff Christensen. He also thinks Lance and Mahomes are very similar when it comes to their competitiveness and demeanor, per his conversation with Barrows.
“He really fit right in,” Christensen told Barrows of Lance’s time with Mahomes in Texas. “Pat really thinks the world of him. He’s just a really good person, conscientious. He wants to be great. And he’s one of the few kids whose actions match his words. He backs it up. He shows up every day and he wants to learn. And that’s why I teach him.”