Niners’ Trey Lance says he has been 100 percent healthy since March: ‘It’s been an awesome offseason for me’

Two years into his NFL career, we don’t know all that much about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance. He started for just one season at North Dakota State, and played only one game in the year leading up to the draft due to the pandemic. He then made two fill-in starts as a rookie, and two starts during his second season — the former of which took place in monsoon-esque conditions and the latter of which was cut short when he broke his ankle on a red-zone rushing attempt toward the tail end of the first quarter. 

In all, Lance has thrown just 102 NFL passes, completing 56 of them for 797 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions. He’s added 54 carries for 235 additional yards, as well as another score.

According to Lance, though, he is now fully healthy after last season’s injury, and is going through the full offseason program. 

“Probably toward the end of March, I would say is when I was 100 percent,” Lance said, per the team’s official website. “The finger (Lance injured it last offseason) was probably a past thing throughout this whole rehab process. I felt like it got to that point, pretty close to that point, after my rookie year, after that offseason.”

Being able to go through offseason workouts has been good for Lance, he says, because he’s been able to get back to being on the field for the first time in a while. “It’s been an awesome offseason for me, just being able to spend time finally getting back to football, finally getting back to being around the guys,” Lance said.

Part of his offseason regimen included training with Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes, which Lance said allowed him to soak up some information about how to train and get himself ready for the season and for games. 

“I learned a ton. I was able to focus on the right things,” Lance said. “Being able to be around Patrick was awesome. To pick his brain and learn about just the type of guy he is, how he spends his free time, offseason, and then more about his in-season schedule as well.”

It’s been reported throughout the offseason that second-year quarterback Brock Purdy has the inside track on the starting quarterback job in San Francisco if he can get healthy, but he had elbow surgery this offseason. The Niners also have a lot more invested in Lance, draft-capital and salary-cap-dollar-wise, than they do in Purdy. So if the former No. 3 overall pick can put together a strong summer and training camp, perhaps he can win the job back.