© Cary Edmondson | 2021 Aug 29
Former 49ers left tackle Joe Staley made his debut as KNBR’s newest weekly guest on Tuesday, and couldn’t hide his excitement when talking about the prospect of new quarterback Trey Lance behind center.
Jimmy Garoppolo will begin the season as the 49ers starting quarterback, and may stay in that role all season if he performs well, but it’s no secret that Kyle Shanahan is going to throw Lance into the game in certain situations to keep the defense on their heels.
“It’s going to be very scary,” Staley told Papa and Lund. “I think this is a hand-picked quarterback in Kyle Shanahan’s system and I think what’s so exciting about it is, now you have to play 11-on-11 football. You have to account for the quarterback when Trey’s out there.
“I think there’s going to be packages in certain situations that he’ll come in. I actually don’t even think it was gonna be a lot like how it was in the third preseason game where they’re rotating first series. Now, it could be, but I believe there’s going to be a very dictated, situational football that he comes in.”
As Staley alluded to, Shanahan swapped QBs to an extreme degree in the 49ers’ preseason finale vs. the Raiders, nearly splitting the snaps between the two players evenly, and frequently substituting within the same drive. Staley pointed to some things he saw in that game that will give the 49ers a significant advantage this season.
“But Trey allows Kyle to create number advantages. So, when we saw one of these plays against the Raiders where he’s now reading the backside defensive end — which is usually accounted for by their backside tackle — and now they’re able to pull both of those guys into the hole, create a number advantage on the play side and then Trey now has to read that backside defensive end, and he has the speed of Raheem Mostert that can gain the edge, or he can keep the ball and follow the blockers and that’s Kyle’s system to a tee.
“It’s create angles and create number advantages, so it’s going to be really exciting to see how he does it as far as creating those advantages and also what he does with motion and the eye candy that he does pre snap so well.
“I’m pumped up on it. I think he has to develop as a pocket passer because I do think defenses are going to really key on that stuff until he really develops the understanding of progressions and timing. But that will come. And I think once that gets out there, I think the sky’s the limit for this offense.”
Listen to the full interview below.