While the decision to not give Trey Lance the No. 2 QB job has some criticizing the 49ers, many also have issues with the way the situation was handled.
Count longtime 49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco as one of the members of that camp. Maiocco said on KNBR Thursday that he was perplexed by Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch’s decision to not directly address the media directly after making the QB decision, especially because it led to speculation when Lance did not show up for practice.
“I don’t think the 49ers did themselves any favors,” Maiocco said. “Kyle Shanahan did not address anything until the evening on KNBR and John Lynch waits almost a full day before saying anything. It really left Trey Lance twisting in the wind a little bit, it kind of hung him out to dry because when he’s not on the practice field your mind immediately races to ‘did he leave the team, what’s the professionalism of that athlete?’ And the 49ers did nothing to kind of take that away from Trey Lance.
“To hear John Lynch talk about it this morning, he said Trey Lance handled it well, but he also said he was devastated and it was a gut punch to Trey. It’s the first time I can ever remember a player moving one spot down the depth chart and then he doesn’t go to the practice that day.”
Additionally, not speaking to the assembled media meant that Fred Warner had to address the situation after practice, despite not really knowing anything about it. Maiocco thought it was messy and similar to the bizarreness of how San Francisco handled the Jimmy Garoppolo situation last season.
“The 49ers left themselves wide open to all kinds of rampant speculation they didn’t need to,” Maiocco concluded. “They could’ve said all this stuff. Where Trey stands, why they made the decision they made, they could’ve done all that stuff immediately, and they didn’t.”