Coach's Notebook: Brian Griese talks Brock Purdy, Trey Lance, 49ers' QB room

Video courtesy of Grant Cohn

Trey Lance

Lance had maybe his best-ever training camp practice on Monday. The quarterback's accuracy and savvy wowed reporters. Lance seemed to exhibit all the traits that excited the 49ers heading into the 2021 draft.

Lance worked hard this offseason with private quarterback coach Jeff Christensen to improve his mechanics. Has the effort paid off?

"Trey has gotten a lot better, and you can tell he's put a lot of time in," Griese said. "I think the way I kind of described it to you guys the last time we talked, first and foremost, he had to get healthy because a lot of what he was struggling with, from a mechanics standpoint, stemmed from him not being healthy, which is really difficult."

Lance suffered a finger injury during his rookie preseason. That injury lingered into the regular season and even into the subsequent offseason. It changed how the quarterback threw a football. Lance had to adjust his grib to compensate for the injured finger.

"Some of the things that he was doing because he was hurt with his finger, his mechanics, he had to unlearn that," Griese continued. "And that took time. And that takes a tremendous amount of reps and understanding of how you throw the ball as a quarterback. Everybody's different

"And so he's done that, and I'm really encouraged by what he's done and the strides that he's made. The ball is coming out really well. We'll see where it goes from here, when we get into live reps in preseason."

Griese wasn't with the 49ers during Lance's rookie season, joining the team last year. He studied Lance's first year, though. What kind of improvement has the coach seen from the quarterback from then until now?

Finally being healthy is significant for the young quarterback. Griese hopes that leads to Lance finding his natural rhythm and motion, and being as comfortable as he was at North Dakota State.

"I'm really happy that he's at that point where he's healthy enough to do that," Griese added. "And he's now put in work on top of that with his motion to give himself a chance to be more accurate. He looks a lot better, there's no question. And I'm excited about that, and I'm excited about him getting into some of these preseason games and having the positive reinforcement that he can build confidence and continue to do that going forward."

Sam Darnold

This offseason has been a whirlwind for Darnold, who is pushing himself to learn head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense as quickly as possible. That's no easy task, given the complexities of the system.

"This system is a little bit different than the systems he's been in the past," Griese explained. "There are some similarities, but there's a lot of differences. And my biggest hope for him was just that he would be able to digest the information and the verbiage and the nomenclature to a point where he could go out in camp and begin to feel comfortable and execute and play off of his instincts and allow himself to see how good he could be in this offense and compete. And he's getting to that point."

Griese points out that Purdy, the likely starter, has only played a handful of games himself. Lance is in his third offseason with the team but has even less in-game experience running Shanahan's offense.

"They're all learning," Griese continued. "They all need every rep, both physically and mentally. And Sam is just getting better each and every day."

Brandon Allen

The wildcard is Allen. Obviously, the 49ers like the quarterback. He is receiving significantly more training camp reps than you might expect from a fourth quarterback.

"He earned him in OTAs," Shanahan said on Sunday. "He did a good job in OTAs, and like today, he was the third quarterback (because Purdy was resting). So he got all the three reps, two of these four practices, which is a good amount."

What has the quarterback coach seen from Allen this offseason?

"Brandon's been in the league long enough to understand how it works, and he's very smart, picked up the offense really well," Griese said. "There was some similarities from what he did in Cincinnati in our system, so he was able to pick the system up quickly. And he's very instinctive. He understands and can read coverages and can anticipate throws. He's a very accurate quarterback, which has always been something that's very important in this offense.

"And so he's impressed us, and he's getting a little bit more opportunity and reps and practice. So we can see whether he takes advantage of those opportunities, and look forward to seeing him play in the preseason, also."