There’s ripping a guy, and then there’s Mike Martz’s take on Trey Lance.
The former 49ers offensive coordinator and Rams Super Bowl winning head coach absolutely destroyed Lance in a video posted on Monday, basically saying he doesn’t do anything well as a football player and that San Francisco sees something that’s not there with him.
“I want their eyeballs,” Martz said of the 49ers. “I’ve never seen anything about this kid that was encouraging at all. He really has to plant himself to make a good throw. He’s not a quick decision guy. [Everything] about him being a mobile guy and making plays with his feet, he looked like a fullback stumbling around trying to run the ball to me. He’s not Lamar. I don’t know what he is. He’s not particularly good guy running with the football.
“Based on what I saw today he missed two guys completely by themselves. I know it was in the rain but quarterbacks do that, you make those throws. I know this, he can only go up, he can only get better, because you can’t get any worse that what he did [Sunday]. I’ve never liked him, I still don’t like him, I’d like to know what he does so well. Because he’s not a great passer, doesn’t have great skills, takes him a long time to set himself and throw the football, misses easy throws and he’s not a particularly good runner. Other than that he’s a hell of a player.”
But Martz didn’t just reserve criticism for Lance. He was arguably just as harsh on Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields.
“I’m just shocked at the Bears. They took this quarterback, they went up and spent a lot to get him, and he was less-than-remarkable would be the kindest thing you could say about it. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a bad performance by a quarterback in his opening performance of the season. He was just completely awful.
“He really deflated the football team with his performance. When you get a quarterback that can’t do anything at all, and defensively you shut them out for a half, you kind of lose hope. Right now they’re a team without hope.”
Just a reminder, that team “without hope” just beat the 49ers in Week 1 of the NFL season despite being a seven point underdog.
Neither Fields nor Lance had spectacular games, yet it’s hard to argue either were particularly awful, especially considering the elements. Lance was 13-for-28 for 164 yards and an interception, posting a QB rating of 50.3. His 54 yards also led the team in rushing. Fields was 8-for-17 for 121 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, while posting a rating of 85.7. He ran for 28 yards.
Martz was fired during his only season as the 49ers’ offensive coordinator in 2008. Following that, he was the Bears OC in 2010-11 before resigning after limited success. He coached the San Diego Fleet in the Alliance of American Football in 2019, going 3-4.