Getty Trey Lance of the San Francisco 49ers.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance said on a podcast that his head coach, Kyle Shanahan, asked him, “Did you see the rumors that you’re going to the Titans?” after Lance’s cryptic use of three fingers-crossed emojis in reaction to a Titans personnel move.
Lance did not clarify whether Shanahan was being empathetic, affable or jocular nor did he characterize Shanahan’s tone as he asked the question.
Lance, appearing on the February 16 episode of “The Q with Quincy Avery,” was addressing the online stir he’d created a month earlier by showing what he said was support for Ran Carthon, the 49ers’ former director of player personnel who was hired as the Tennessee Titans’ general manager.
Trey Lance on a podcast with Quincy Avery just said that, amidst the online fallout after Ran Carthon was hired as Tennessee’s GM, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan walked in and said “Did you see the rumors that you’re going to the Titans?”
“So, yeah, the fingers-crossed emoji is not like, ‘Man, I’m crossing my fingers I’m going to be a Tennessee Titan.’ I cross my fingers, man. I love it here. I don’t ever want to be anywhere else,” Lance told Avery, per 49ers Webzone.
Trey Lance Clarifies His Social Media Activities to Quincy Avery
Asked to clear the air about his Instagram Live, Lance, who was drafted by the 49ers in 2021, clarified his relationship with Carthon, who had been with the 49ers since 2017.
“So, me and Ran got really close over the last — I wouldn’t say super-close — but we talked on the regular,” Lance told Avery, according to 49ers Webzine. “He would bring his boys in. I would hang out with his kids in the training room. So for me, it was huge. They were like a shining light. They come in and show me how many pushes they could do and stuff like that,” he said.
“So just getting to know someone’s family like that, I was super-happy for him for the opportunity,” he said, according to 49ers Webzone.
Tennessee hired Carthon, 42, on January 17, over a month after firing Jon Robinson with five games left in the regular season. The Titans started the season 5-2 before dropping eight of the next 10 games, including seven in a row to close out the season.
Lance, who missed almost all of 2022 with an injury, said he typically is on social media mostly to follow people associated with the 49ers.
“I go on Instagram, and I’ll look at my teammates’ stuff, the team stuff, stuff like that, stuff about my family, stuff like that,” he said, according to 49ers Webzone. “I don’t spend a whole lot of time [on social media], especially over this last year. It’s been great for me to just be off of social media. I’m not on Instagram, daily even.
“So, for me, I just want to support guys. This whole season was probably more of a 49ers fan page than anything. Like, just showing guys support. [WR Ray-Ray McCloud]’s got a cool outfit, [LB Azeez Al-Shaair]’s got a cool video, [LB] Fred [Warner], whatever it was, and then obviously the Ran stuff,” he said, according to 49ers Webzone.
The Athletic’s David Lombardi first reported Lance’s comment about Shanahan.
The Price Might Not Be Right for a San Francisco 49ers QB Trade
One of the biggest questions of the 49ers’ offseason relates to Lance’s value, especially given the performance of rookie Brock Purdy, who won the final games of the regular season after Lance’s backup, Jimmy Garoppolo, went down with an injury.
Lance, who is about to enter his third year, was the Niners’ third overall pick in 2021. Even if the team is open to moving off of Lance this offseason, according to Michael Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle, the price may simply prove too exorbitant to justify saying goodbye to, at worst, a very interesting developmental backup quarterback.
“Even if the Niners are receptive to potential trade offers for Lance after the season, they won’t come close to recouping that haul,” Silver wrote on January 20. “Based on my conversations with several teams’ general managers (and other high-ranking front-office executives), Lance would be unlikely to net much more than a third- round selection, though it’s possible there’s a team out there motivated to give more.”
However, it cost the 49ers three first-round picks (2021, 2022 and 2023) and a second-round pick (2022) to trade up to the No. 3 spot to draft Lance. Even taking the sunk cost fallacy into account, a third-round pick, of which the 49ers already have three in 2023, may prove too slight of an offer to accept.