The San Francisco 49ers officially gave up on Trey Lance when they traded him to the Dallas Cowboys on Friday. In doing so, they admitted they erred when they gave up a huge haul of draft picks to move up the board for Lance two years ago. Robert Griffin III feels that 2021 trade was so bad it could have cost both Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch their jobs.
After the Niners traded Lance to Dallas for a fourth-round pick, Griffin took to social media with an extremely dramatic take on the situation. He referred to San Francisco’s decision to trade up for Lance as “THE WORST DRAFT DAY MOVE OF ALL TIME.” RG3 also said Shanahan and Lynch would have been fired if they did not hit on Brock Purdy late in last year’s draft.
It’s official. The 49ers decision to give up 3 first round picks to move up and draft Trey Lance is THE WORST DRAFT DAY MOVE OF ALL TIME. Only reason Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch aren’t fired is they hit on the last pick of last year’s draft in Brock Purdy. Now Trey has been…
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) August 25, 2023
“It’s official. The 49ers decision to give up 3 first round picks to move up and draft Trey Lance is THE WORST DRAFT DAY MOVE OF ALL TIME. Only reason Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch aren’t fired is they hit on the last pick of last year’s draft in Brock Purdy. Now Trey has been traded to the Dallas Cowboys for a 4th round pick. What an UNBELIEVABLE ENDING to the Trey Lance Era in San Fran,” Griffin wrote.
Griffin’s take was wildly harsh. Was the Lance trade in 2021 a mistake? It sure looks that way, but it did not stop the 49ers from reaching three NFC Championship Games in the past four seasons. Lynch and Shanahan still have managed to assemble one of the best rosters in the NFL despite the Lance miscue.
The 49ers sent three first-round picks (one that was a swap) and a third-round pick to the Miami Dolphins in 2021 to move from No. 12 to No. 3 for Lance. The ironic part about Griffin’s take is that he landed in Washington over a decade ago via a similar trade that also ended in disaster.
In 2012, the then-Washington Redskins traded three first-round picks and a second-round pick to move up four spots to No. 2 so they could draft RG3. The decision looked like a good one until Griffin suffered a knee injury late in his rookie season, and things went downhill from there.
While the Niners obviously should not have made the Lance trade two years ago, that move is hardly going to define the Lynch-Shanahan era. RG3’s exaggerated seems a bit self-serving.
