Last Thursday, Matt Lombardo of FanSided created a bit of a firestorm on 49ers Twitter when he tweeted out that the 49ers have been "continually underwhelmed by Trey Lance…"
I have heard that the #49ers' staff has been continually underwhelmed by Trey Lance … https://t.co/BfypDIHzXo
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardoNFL) May 5, 2022
The following morning, Lombardo was on 95.7 The Game to further clarify his comments. He said that "this all stems from a conversation that I had with an executive who's pretty tight with people within the 49ers organization. Then following up with a couple of members of the coaching staff. The feeling around San Francisco, dating back to last summer during training camp, was a little bit of disappointment over the Trey Lance that arrived in training camp versus what they saw on film at North Dakota State from an arm-strength standpoint, from a deep-ball accuracy standpoint."
Now obviously, Lombardo didn't reveal his sources, nor would or should he, but there are definitely some dots that we can connect, especially when it comes to the "couple of members of the coaching staff" that he spoke to.
Lombardo is a Philadelphia-area reporter, and prior to returning to the 49ers as quarterbacks coach for the 2021 season, Rich Scangarello spent the 2020 season as a Senior Offensive Assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles. While there is no direct connection that can be made—no Lombardo penned articles about Scangarello or anything of that nature—it stands to reason that the two know each other in some capacity.
A prior relationship doesn't necessarily mean that Scangarello could be one of the sources that Lombardo cited in the interview, but there are also recent comments that Scangarello has made recently that would suggest that Trey Lance was not a quarterback he was fond of leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft. On a March 16th episode of the podcast Tape Heads, Scangarello was asked about scouting quarterbacks in the draft and he said "do you want a guy who throws it hard and 70 yards or a guy that runs really fast, or do you want a guy who throws with anticipation, on time, allows Y.A.C., processes, a natural leader, those qualities?"
(h/t Grant Cohn of SI)
That can easily be interpreted as a veiled commentary on the debate that raged prior to the draft about whether the 49ers were targeting Trey Lance and/or Justin Fields versus Mac Jones. If you look at the history of quarterbacks that Scangarello has worked with (and loved) you see players like Jimmy Garoppolo and Nick Mullens, who absolutely fit the mold in the last part of the above quote, as did Mac Jones.
Did Scangarello want the 49ers to draft Mac Jones over Trey Lance? There are plenty of clues to suggest that is indeed the case.
Perhaps Scangarello had objections to the selection of Trey Lance, which eventually led to his departure from the organization at the end of this past season.
Was Scangarello one of the members of the coaching staff that Lombardo spoke to about being "underwhelmed" by Lance?
There are plenty of clues to suggest that is indeed the case as well.
