SANTA CLARA — Of the 31 destinations quarterback Trey Lance could have been sent to, Dallas would have been near the bottom of the 49ers' list.
But that’s where the team traded Lance for a fourth-round draft pick last Friday.
General manager John Lynch, appearing Thursday morning on KNBR’s "Murph & Mac Show," said he had no choice but to get the best compensation for the player the 49ers selected with the 2021 No. 3 overall draft pick.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“As they say, ’Tie goes to the runner,’” Lynch said. “Tie would’ve gone to someone else, but it wasn’t a tie.”
In other words, Dallas owner Jerry Jones made an offer that was considerably better than what other teams were willing to give up for Lance.
“There were a couple teams left at the end and I told the other teams, ‘I don’t want him to go there (Dallas),’’’ Lynch said. “But you know, that’s where he ended up.”
A week earlier, Lynch said he believed the “most likely” scenario was that Lance would remain with the 49ers. Lynch said all that changed in a short period of time as trade talks heated up with the final preseason game approaching.
San Francisco 49ers
“That was the most likely scenario because we’d opened discussions with teams and there was nothing that would have had us inclined to move him,” Lynch said. “And in the next 24 hours, things changed.”