It's safe to say that Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid knows a thing or two about finding a franchise quarterback. He aggressively pursued Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 NFL Draft when others had their doubts. That turned out pretty well.

Reid got a good look at another young quarterback on Saturday night, this time playing for his preseason opponent—the San Francisco 49ers. Trey Lance made his NFL debut, and it was one that has sparked conversation across the league.

While Lance had his share of miscues, which you would expect from a rookie, he also showed flashes of what he can become. For example, the play of the game featured Lance rolling to the left hitting wide receiver Trent Sherfield on a perfectly-thrown 80-yard touchdown pass up the right side of the field.


"Ah, you're in good hands," Reid said when asked about his first impressions of Lance. "Yeah, he's a good player. He looked very poised, composed, and he had a nice play on the firecracker there that he shot down the field."


Of course, even more telling was the smile on Reid's face as he started talking about Lance, one of the few times the coach cracked a grin during his post-game conversation with reporters.

Lance finished the game 5-of-14 passing for 128 yards and a touchdown. The quarterback has not played in a game since October 3, 2020, and has not played in front of fans since January 11, 2020.

"It was fun. I obviously left a lot of big plays out there," Lance said after the game. "Wish I would've, you know, taken advantage of the opportunities that were given a few times, especially at the end of the half and starting that first drive of the second half. But I mean, it was awesome to be out there playing again, have great guys around me, obviously just needed to do a little bit better job getting those guys the ball."

Lance planned to get back to work after the game, reviewing the film, further assessing his play, and beginning the process of fixing his mistakes.

"That's just kind of what football is, especially this position," Lance said. "Just continuing to turn the page on mistakes. And I thought I did that mentally. But obviously, like I said, didn't make every play tonight.


"The plays that were called were really, really good ones. So let some really big ones out there that I noticed, and we noticed on the sideline. So for me, it was frustrating, obviously leaving those plays out there."

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