One of the storylines heading into the draft was that the San Francisco 49ers suggested quarterback Trey Lance work with private coach John Beck at the team's request. ESPN's Dan Graziano was the first to report the news and stated that the 49ers provided Beck with a list of drills and things they wanted to see from Lance during his second pro day workout.
Beck, a former NFL quarterback, previously worked with Kyle Shanahan when the 49ers head coach was the offensive coordinator in Washington.
General manager John Lynch offered some clarification over the weekend. The 49ers didn't insist Lance work with Beck at all. The former North Dakota quarterback had an early first pro day and was training in Los Angeles with his former teammate, Easton Stick. That's when he started working with Beck. A week later, on March 26, San Francisco traded up to No. 3.
Unbeknownst to Lance, he was the Niners' primary target.
As soon as the trade happened, Lance scrambled to set up a second pro day, knowing that he might be among the 49ers' options. It made sense to work again with Beck because of the coach's familiarity with Shanahan and his system. Lynch said the 49ers did not insist Lance work with Beck.
"Yeah, that wasn't the case," Lynch told Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated over the weekend. "So, there are some things there. I went to high school with Tom House's daughter. Kyle's got to know Tom well through Matt Ryan because Matt saw him and Kyle took the time to go out there as a coach, and he met John Beck. But that's not our business to tell people, 'Hey, go here.' And I know that was a big narrative.
"Sometimes people will say, 'Hey, what will he do?' and we'll say we've had good success here. But I can tell you, John's opinion mattered a lot to us, and so did [Lance's previous trainer, Quincy Avery]'s. I talked to Quincy, and he was a tremendous resource—he's been around Trey a lot. So I'm appreciative to both of them."
Yet another interesting pre-draft tidbit that ended up being false, reaffirming that you should be careful what you believe leading up to the annual event.
