The 49ers have had several injury issues at quarterback over the last few years, whether it’s been with Jimmy Garoppolo, Trey Lance, or most recently Brock Purdy.
Garoppolo’s injury history was part of why the club went out and traded up to select Lance.
In Wednesday’s season-ending press conference, General Manager John Lynch was asked if there’s something the 49ers can do to find a solution for their injury issues or if it’s something that is out of the club’s control. When he did, he said something interesting about the team’s No. 3 overall pick from 2021.
“I really believe that’s a tough position to play in this league,” Lynch said. “I understand there’s some players who’ve had incredible durability. As Kyle [Shanahan] said earlier, I think Brock’s been incredibly durable throughout his career. He ran into just an inopportune situation where he’s trying to throw the ball down field, and he’s got an NFL edge rusher pulling at your arm the other direction. It’s just not going to hold up, so that stinks.
“Trey had his issues and Trey’s had a rough go here the last couple years. He’s obviously going to have to prove that he can stay healthy, but I know there was periods of my career early on where I struggled to stay healthy, then I went eight years without missing a snap. So that happens sometimes. And yeah, I’m sure people wonder, Jimmy’s had his issues, but believe me, it’s nothing with the way we play our quarterbacks or anything.
“I think it’s just coincidence and we look into everything, but I don’t think we have any more of an issue than anybody else. I think that’s a tough position in this league.”
Lance has started just four games in his two seasons and wasn’t supposed to start as a rookie. But he did deal with a knee injury in 2021 before breaking his ankle in Week Two of this season.
At this point, the 49ers will ostensibly head into 2023 with Lance and Purdy as their top choices at quarterback — though Lance will presumably have a leg up going into training camp because he’ll be available to take the reps during the offseason program. Either way, the 49ers could certainly use some better injury luck