Stephen A. Smith believes that it is not out of the realm of possibility the 49ers, sooner rather than later, come to regret the decision to start Trey Lance.
On Friday's episode of "First Take," Smith along with fellow ESPN analysts Ryan Clark and Marcus Spears discussed the 49ers' quarterback situation with Lance as the starter and veteran Jimmy Garoppolo serving as the backup.
"Obviously if they believed in Jimmy G enough, they wouldn't have gone through all of this, we get it," Smith said. "But he did take them to a Super Bowl -- or he was the quarterback, rather, that was there when they went to the Super Bowl -- obviously, he was in an NFC Championship Game, I get all of that. What I'm saying to you is this, because of the youth of Trey Lance and the fact that he doesn't seem to have come along as quickly, based on what they've been saying in training camp and preseason and all that."
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Smith doesn't take much away from Lance's performance in the 49ers' Week 1 loss to the Chicago Bears and believes that it is too soon to give up on the young quarterback this season. However, he does envision a possible scenario in which San Francisco is forced to bench Lance.
"The fact is, if you see slippage, you ain't going to hesitate to say so and it is entirely plausible that before Thanksgiving, we're saying 'somebody else need to eat, it don't need to be him. He needs to sit his behind right on the bench because he ain't ready, he needs another year of seasoning.'" Smith added. "That is possible, we can't rule that out."
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Of course, Lance now has an opportunity to silence some of the narratives that have been discussed in the last week with a strong performance against the Seattle Seahawks at Levi's Stadium on Sunday in Week 2.
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Come Monday morning, Stephen A. and many other analysts and talking heads might have a different opinion on Lance.