The San Francisco 49ers managed to overcome the loss of their starting quarterback, Trey Lance, in Sunday's 27-7 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Jimmy Garoppolo, who was re-signed to a restructured one-year deal before the start of the season, replaced the second-year quarterback.
The early news coming out of Santa Clara on Lance's status hasn't been good. The quarterback was ruled out due to an ankle injury. The news got worse when ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Lance is expected to undergo surgery, likely ending his 2022 campaign.
49ers' QB Trey Lance suffered a significant ankle injury today that is expected to require surgery that likely will end his season, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 18, 2022
Head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed Schefter's report after the game, sharing that Lance suffered a broken ankle and will undergo season-ending surgery on Monday morning.
"He's doing as good as you can," Shanahan said. "When I went out and saw him, he was just asking me about a couple of the plays before, about some of his reads and stuff. That's the type of kid he is, and I'm hurting for him."
Shanahan added, "We were really hoping to see a lot of him this year, so to have that bad of an injury where you can't come back from it, we feel for him. But if anyone can do it, it's him."
Shanahan was asked about the play, and if he has any regrets about calling it.
"Any time a guy gets hurt, I wish I didn't call that," the coach shared. "But no, that's something we were going to do, and something we would continue to do. It's a football play we believe in, and something that gives him a chance to be real successful in the league."
Shanahan was asked again about the play call decision. After all, the 49ers had been running the football well up to that point. Was that the best call in that situation, on 2nd-and-8?
"Would it have been better if it was 2nd-and-4?" Shanahan responded to the reporter asking the question. "Is that what you're implying? ... There's a few options on the play. It could have been a handoff. The D-end went up the play. It's the exact same play we ran three plays before that where Deebo [Samuel] got a 52-yarder. So there's a lot of stuff that goes into it."
Shanahan added, "It's a pretty normal play [around the league]. It's part of football, and it's unfortunately he hurt his ankle on it. But it's a very normal play. You guys should watch some other [teams]."
That means it will be Garoppolo at quarterback moving forward. He finished the game 13-of-21 for 154 yards, a touchdown, and a passer rating of 100.1. Garoppolo also had a rushing touchdown late in the game.
