Trey Lance got his first look at starting snaps on Sunday, and despite the loss, there was much to take away from his performance. Lance finished his outing against the Arizona Cardinals completing 15-of-29 passes for 192 yards and an interception that led to Arizona's first points of the day. He also added 89 yards on the ground on 16 attempts, the most by a 49ers quarterback in a single game since Colin Kaepernick rushed for 113 yards on 10 carries against the Miami Dolphins in 2016.
Per NFL Research, Lance passed Tim Tebow for the fourth-most rushing yards by a rookie quarterback in his first NFL start in the Super Bowl era, trailing only Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts and Randall Cunningham.
As expected, there was some good, bad and ugly (interception on opening drive), but overall, Lance made some encouraging plays that the 49ers hope the rookie can build on.
"I thought he did some really good things. Definitely wasn't perfect, which no one ever has been," head coach Kyle Shanahan said postgame. "That first pick I thought just sailed on him, he was going to the right spot, but it just got away from him on that first drive. Overall, I think we could have done a little bit better around him. I thought he did good enough to win."
Shanahan wasn't the only person who thought highly of Lance's full debut as several members of the 49ers and Cardinals evaluated his performance.
Here's what was said following Lance's Week 5 outing:
WR Deebo Samuel: "He was able to go out there and do what coach asked him to do. And as wideouts, we went out there and made the plays that we were supposed to make. (We) had all the confidence in Trey in this game, we just came up short.
"I think he's kind of right there. There's just little things he has to capitalize on and learn as a rookie."
LT Trent Williams: "He was poised. He was confident. I feel like Trey gave us a chance to win.
"I don't see why there's any question on whether he'll be fine or not. We moved the ball up and down the field. He made some dynamic plays with his legs. He made some plays with his arm. We have to cut down on the penalties. We have to be better in situations. But I feel like Trey is going to be fine. There's nothing I've seen that makes me think otherwise."
DB Jimmie Ward: "I feel like Trey settled in. I feel like he made some great throws. Banged his body up a little bit more than I like, but at the end of the day, he's a playmaker and he's going to try to make plays."
DL Nick Bosa: "It was fun to watch. He definitely runs the ball hard. He might need to learn how to slide."
LB Fred Warner: "Just from what I saw, I thought he did great. I think he did a great job. On defense, we just have to get the ball back to him more because we know he can do special things with it.
"You want so much for a young guy when he's in there in his first start to be successful – gain that confidence. We have all the confidence in the world in Trey. When you're a young guy and you're taking those shots from these big dudes, we're the ones on the opposite side, we know how that is. (It's) admirable."
Cardinals Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury: "I thought he had a tremendous plan for (Lance) to use his legs and let him play and show off his athletic ability, and he did. He played tough. We needed every second to win that game."
Cardinals S Budda Baker: "He's fast. He can get out of that pocket. He was running the ball. He did his thing. We knew he was going to try to get out of the pocket and he did a great job of getting out of the pocket and forcing first downs and getting their offense to get on the field some more. If not, it would probably look a lot different than what it looked like. He's a great young guy, of course ... A guy who just now is getting their offense. Their offense is a pretty hard offense to learn, so he did a great job, ran the ball."
