There was some tempestuous discourse a while back about Trey Lance having “arm fatigue.”
The subject was spurred by a report from Mike Silver, who said that Lance had “arm fatigue” in his rookie season, as part of a comment that stated that the 49ers were concerned about Lance.
There was some furor online about the report, part of which seemed to be based on the suggestion that Lance’s performance and health were concerning to the team.
Lance addressed the fatigue on Thursday, in an interview with QB coach Quincy Avery.
He admitted his arm was “honestly dead” from what he described as a year and a half of throwing nearly without rest:
I started throwing in May because I was rehabbing my hip. So that was when I started getting the ball back in my hand, in May. So, I threw from May, 2020, all the way through that year, draft prep. Got drafted the next April. So, at that point, I had been throwing for a year straight. Then go through that whole season through the next January.
So, I don’t know, about 20 months straight of throwing. Probably a week off in there. I don’t know if I took a whole week between that whole time. But through that whole season, I threw for probably 20 months straight at least three times a week.
Avery noted that it was not a normal process, saying Lance had the longest draft prep he’d witnessed.
“I don’t think anybody can compare anything to that,” Avery said.
Kyle Shanahan said on July 26 that Lance did deal with arm fatigue, but said he remembered it happening on just one day, and that it’s fairly common:
I think it happened one day in training camp last year. But that would be accurate with any quarterback I ever coached. Yeah, guys get arm fatigue at times.
But Trey’s arm was great all throughout OTAs. It’s been great talking to him through the whole summer. And I expect it to be the best it’s looked when he starts practice tomorrow.
The clarification from Lance sheds some light on what was unclear. There was some question, or implication, that he was dealing with unusual arm fatigue, something that quarterbacks deal with from time to time.
Given that he had an unusual run up to his rookie year, it makes a bit more sense that his situation was perhaps more noticeable.