San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch Breaks Silence On Trey Lance Trade

The San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch was faced with a tough decision. The team traded a king’s ransom to draft Trey Lance but it was clear things were not working out. The team finally decided to trade him to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a fourth-round pick. It didn’t take long for Lynch to break his silence on the matter.

“Really hard day. Such a wonderful young man. We took a shot, and it didn’t work out. We own that. We take accountability for it.

I think… his story is very much unwritten. I’m excited for Trey. Dallas stepped up and really wanted him. They came after him. I think it’s going to be a great landing spot for him…

This team is ready to win, and we like our quarterback room. We like Brock Purdy a lot, we like Sam Darnold, and we like Brandon Allen. We wish Trey all the best in Dallas. We’ll always care about that young man and admire his work ethic and the person that he is.”

The team is happy to move forward with Brock Purdy and Sam Darnold. Lance was never able to really get reps because of injuries and the team couldn’t put a player with value at the QB3 position.

This feels like the type of move that most general managers get fired over. Trading multiple first-round picks only for that player to be a bust usually ends in a GM not having a job. This does not seem to be the case with Lynch. This might be a move that comes back to bite the 49ers later. If Dallas is able to develop Lance and he becomes a solid starter in the league, there will be many questions about how the organization develops players. The draft capital will catch up with them at some point as well but so far, they have been able to put a solid roster on the field.

Will John Lynch be able to recover from the disastrous Trey Lance trade? Only time will tell. However, the 49ers are now under more pressure to win now. If they can still win a Super Bowl, all is forgiven. If they continue to fall short, Lynch might start to feel the heat.

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Speaking after the deal was confirmed, Shanahan stated that he had only agreed to move Lance after he expressed his wishes to play elsewhere.

He told reporters: “When we told Trey that he wasn’t the two, I said we’d like to keep him here as the three, but we also want to do what’s good for him too, and we’ll see how this plays out.

“Trey and I talked, we talked about all the situations going forward. I told him how much I’d still want him to [be] here to be the three and things like that.

“We looked into other teams and he told us that he would like another opportunity to go somewhere where we had a chance to be the two, we thought we got some good deals for him.

“I also told him that what I think is best for Trey, I do think Trey needs an opportunity to play more. The opportunities he’s had here, when he has had those two opportunities, he’s gotten hurt in both of them and kind of missed that window a little bit. Gave an opportunity for someone else to do it.”

Shanahan then stated that they did not even expect to receive a fourth-round pick on Lance, despite them using a third-overall pick on him just two years ago.

“There’s a number of teams involved to end up getting the fourth was a little better than we anticipated and clears up a lot of money and allows a better situation for him too.”

Lance became aware of interest in him, likely preferring to go to a team where he’d be the back-up quarterback rather than competing for a spot.

But he will have had no leverage in deciding where he went, with the Cowboys sending the highest offer of a fourth-round pick.

Dallas will likely use Lance as their backup to Dak Prescott, though Cooper Rush could remain in the mix for that duty. Rush has played 16 games filling in for Prescott since 2017.