49ers owner Jed York isn’t worried about the prospect of running things back with Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance, a situation that has gone from pipe dream to possibility in recent days.
John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan both said during the owners meetings this week that they don’t foresee cutting Garoppolo, meaning either a trade or Jimmy sticking around are the likely options, assuming you believe what they are selling.
York was certainly parroting the company line on Wednesday, but went a step further when he cited the most famous quarterback controversy in NFL history.
“It’s professional sports,” York said. “If Steve Young can sit on the bench for four seasons — Steve Young is a Hall of Famer. If he is willing to do it, and he has the competitive will to do it, why can’t somebody else?
“I think those two drove each other in the late ’80s and early ’90s to be the best that they could possibly be,” York said. “If that’s the situation that we have and that’s what is created, sign me up for that problem any day.”
Putting Montana and Young in any conversation regarding Garoppolo and Lance probably isn’t a wise decision, but we can see what York is trying to say here. If Young could sit for multiple years, the idea that Lance might have to shouldn’t be a problem. That situation also got the best out of Young — according to York — so who’s to say that won’t happen with Lance?
The comparison begins to fall apart when you remember that Young sat because he was playing behind the greatest quarterback of all time, while Lance is sitting behind the league-average Garoppolo.
Will it actually happen again? Probably not, but the 49ers sure want the rest of the league to think it might.