The 49ers pulled the plug on the Trey Lance experiment one week ago, stunningly trading the former No. 3 overall draft pick to the Dallas Cowboys hours before their preseason finale at Levi's Stadium.
Now, everyone is trying to decipher why things didn't work out between Lance and the 49ers, and former San Francisco legend Joe Montana has an easy explanation.
"I just don't think he was a fit for the offense," Montana told NBC Bay Area's Ian Cull on Thursday. "From the system he came from, learning this system is not easy. It's a pocket system. It's not where he came from.
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"Look at [49ers backup quarterback] Sam [Darnold], even Sam wasn't a fit for where he was and he was a first-round pick. And so sometimes it's just the luck of the draw of where you get drafted and what team and Trey, great athlete and, you know, he may be a great player, but he just wasn't a fit here."
It's well-documented how much draft capital the 49ers traded to move up to No. 3 in order to draft Lance in 2021, and in two seasons with San Francisco, he started just four games and appeared in four others. Injuries played a big part in that.
But so did the emergence of Brock Purdy, who stepped in when Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo both sustained season-ending injuries last year. Now the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft has locked up the 49ers' starting quarterback job, meaning Lance had no viable path to playing time in San Francisco.
Did the 49ers give Lance enough of a chance? Montana believes so.
San Francisco 49ers
"I think there was opportunity there for him," Montana told Cull. "I think in the last two preseason games, they gave him some more time just to be sure that the decision, I think they were probably pondering anyway, was what they wanted to do."
Lance found some success when he was able to scramble and improvise, but he struggled to get the football out quick enough when standing in the pocket. That still was evident during the 49ers' preseason games in August. It was also clear that the more he played, the better he got. So maybe he just needed more time to develop.
But struggling in Year 3 of Kyle Shanahan's offensive scheme is a troublesome sign, and that's what Montana keeps coming back to.
"I spoke to him a couple of times," Montana told Cull. "It's just hard if, if the system, if you don't understand the system and how it works, and what you're expected to do, it's hard to be successful in that when you're trying to figure it out on the run."
Lance now has a fresh start in Dallas, though he still is stuck at No. 3 on the depth chart behind Dak Prescott and backup Cooper Rush, so it might take some time before the North Dakota State product is back on the field.
But Lance now has a chance to learn a new system, one that might be easier for him to adapt to, allowing him to salvage a fruitful NFL career.