“We told Trey, when we told him that he wasn’t the two, I said we’d like to keep him here as the three, but we also wanna do what’s good for him too.” Kyle Shanahan admitted back in 2023 when the 49ers traded Trey Lance to Dallas. At the time, Shanahan framed it as a favor; keeping Lance as a third-string QB wasn’t the plan, but neither was giving him a real shot. Lance disagreed. He wanted more. And he chose to move to Dallas. 

Fast-forward to now, and the 25-year-old looks like a different player. In his second preseason game with the Chargers, Lance didn’t just manage the offense. Indeed, he won, scrambling for key yards and showing the kind of confidence that made him a top draft pick years ago. The stats from Sunday’s game tell one story. Lance’s 55 passing yards, 48 rushing yards, and the gritty 5-yard TD scramble helped seal the Chargers’ win. But his postgame words? Those told a completely different one.

When Lance started talking about what makes this Chargers stint special, he didn’t just praise the team. He spotlighted something he never had in San Francisco: real coaching.

“I’m excited for it. I want to hear it all. I want to be coached,” Lance said. “This is a great place for me to be because of that. Like, I’m going to be coached. I’m going to be coached hard. There’s no, you know, letting things slide, anything like that.” Read between those lines, and it’s impossible to miss the difference. 

In San Francisco, Lance spent three years stuck in QB purgatory, drafted third overall in 2021, then buried behind Jimmy Garoppolo and Brock Purdy without ever getting a true shot to develop. Kyle Shanahan famously called him “raw,” but the 49ers never invested the time to refine him.

The results speak for themselves. In two preseason games, Lance has led scoring drives, shown off his rocket arm. And most importantly, looked comfortable. That’s what happens when a coach actually believes in you. Now let’s talk about the coaching contrast that’s turning heads. And what it says about why Lance never flourished under Shanahan.

Trey Lance finds his coaching match

The sideline shots told the whole story. Every time Trey Lance came off the field during Sunday’s game, there was Jim Harbaugh – hands on his QB’s shoulders, scribbling plays on his tablet, hyping him up after every series. Not just coaching, but believing. And that’s when it hit home: this was everything we never saw between Lance and Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco.

“I thought he played really good,” Harbaugh said postgame, his praise simple but telling. “Good presence and poised, and in control. Just make the right decisions … that’s really what it comes down to. Not everyone can do it.” Compare that to three years of Shanahan’s public comments about Lance – always hedging, always calling him a ‘project,’ never fully committing. While Harbaugh sees a QB worth developing, Shanahan saw one he couldn’t wait to replace.

Even ESPN‘s Louis Riddick noticed the difference, tweeting: “Trey Lance is with the right program, right Coach, right QB room. No BS. No agendas. He has a chance to see what he can become now.” The proof isn’t just in the words; it’s in the results. Lance looks sharper than ever, making smart throws and avoiding turnovers. The same tools that made him a top pick, the arm talent, the athleticism, are finally being refined. And that raises the real question: If this version of Lance was possible all along, why did it take three years and a coaching change to unlock it?

Maybe the ‘project’ label in San Francisco said more about the development plan than the player. Because what we’re seeing now isn’t a reinvention, it’s what happens when elite potential meets hands-on coaching.