3 Trey Lance trade destinations that make sense in 2023

The 2023 NFL Draft is just one week away, so it should come as absolutely no surprise that it’s gone public that the San Francisco 49ers are “receiving” calls on former top-five pick Trey Lance. Lance was the apple of the 49ers’ eye just two years ago in the 2021 NFL Draft when they traded up multiple first-round picks into the third overall slot to get their guy. Now, after a lost year to injury and the emergence of Brock Purdy, could the 49ers really be looking to maximize their value for Lance?

Even if part of their motivation is getting Trey Lance a change of scenery and trying to put him in a spot to succeed while moving on to Brock Purdy long-term, there should be suitors for Lance. Coming off of injury, he may not have the best trade value, but there are teams and executives around the league who had high opinions of Lance very recently, and he’s still just going to be 23 this season.

Which teams around the league could end up trading for the former North Dakota State star?

3 NFL teams that could trade for Trey Lance before, during, or after the 2023 NFL Draft

1. Houston Texans

The Houston Texans are moving forward with a new era in 2023, hiring former 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans as their head coach. Ryans has appointed another former 49ers assistant — Bobby Slowik — to come in and run his offense. Recent rumors seem to indicate that the Texans are not sold on their QB options with that no. 2 pick overall in the 2023 NFL Draft…

People seem shocked by this news but the Texans are probably not good enough just yet to not at least ask the question — would we rather invest in CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, or Will Levis in this Draft versus shooting for Caleb Williams or Drake Maye (and the field) in next year’s draft?

Or maybe the Texans know enough about Trey Lance and his development that they are thinking — We could legitimately go into the 2023 NFL Draft and come away with two cornerstone pieces at picks no. 2 and no. 12 overall, and we could trade something else to get Trey Lance in the fold and have him compete with Davis Mills for a year before reevaluating in 2024.

Again, not many coaching staffs are going to know Lance as a player and person better than this group in Houston. This is a fit that could make a ton of sense given the fact that Houston has a player who could start if Lance isn’t healthy or doesn’t develop, and given the fact they may prefer the alternatives.

2. Tennessee Titans

Once again, connections around the NFL could be the saving grace for Trey Lance. It’s way too early to consider him a “lost cause” or anything like that, but it would be fair if teams around the league didn’t see as much value in him now as it was perceived just two years ago when he was one of the younger players in the 2021 NFL Draft class. One of the guys now in charge of a new team who knows Lance extremely well is new Tennessee Titans GM Ran Carthon, previously a member of the 49ers’ front office.

Ran Carthon has already been gutting the roster from previous GM Jon Robinson there in Tennessee, but a few bigger dominoes have yet to fall. One of those is the status of quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who seems to be teetering on the edge of being one of the top 20 QBs in the NFL and really just sort of falling into that Andy Dalton status.

The Titans and Carthon undoubtedly see where things have been trending with Tannehill at the helm, and there’s a reason why we’ve been hearing some rumors of the Titans perhaps wanting to move up from the no. 11 overall pick to the no. 3 overall selection in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals.

Instead of trading the farm to move up for someone, perhaps the Titans would like the alternative of just trading a couple of other picks to Carthon’s old pals in San Francisco. Earlier this offseason, Trey Lance posted this to his Instagram in response to Carthon getting hired by Tennessee…

Now that trade rumors have begun to surface regarding Lance and teams calling the 49ers, we know John Lynch is picking up the phone for guys like Ran Carthon. Those relationships matter a ton this time of year.

3. Denver Broncos

So we’ve looked at a couple of teams that have clear connections to the San Francisco 49ers. The guys in Houston and Tennessee were in the room when the 49ers made the massive move up the board to get Trey Lance in that 2021 NFL Draft. They were in the room when the vision was cast about Trey Lance being the future of the franchise.

The Denver Broncos have a new captain at the helm, and his name is Sean Payton. Payton has taken a particular interest in the quarterback prospects over the last handful of years because, for a while, he and the Saints were having to face the idea of life after Drew Brees. Of course, their pre-draft plans never materialized into any massive quarterback news or trades up the board, but Payton certainly had guys he liked in each respective NFL Draft class.

It appears as though Trey Lance was one of those guys he liked in 2021…

Rumors have emerged over the last couple of years that Denver Broncos GM George Paton also really liked Lance coming out and that he was the team’s QB1 that year (realistically available to them, of course) and they decided to pass on Justin Fields over Pat Surtain II when their time to pick came at no. 9 overall.

If both Payton and Paton liked Trey Lance coming out, would they trade from their little remaining NFL Draft capital in 2023 to land him two years into his NFL career? It’s not impossible, though it’s possible the Broncos are just not in the market for any further substantial investments at QB.

Sean Payton sort of raved about the team’s acquisition of free agent QB Jarrett Stidham, saying they believe he could be a starter in the NFL at some point. Even with a high opinion of Stidham, it might make sense for Payton to set himself up with a couple of young QBs in case things do go haywire with Russell Wilson in 2023 after the worst season of Wilson’s career in 2022.