Trey Lance may not be ready to start for the 49ers on Day 1 of his pro career, but all signs point to him eventually being a perfect fit under center for head coach Kyle Shanahan.

Doug Farrar over at the Touchdown Wire shortly after the 49ers made their move up to No. 3 in the draft put together a list of candidates for the third overall pick and how they’d fit in San Francisco’s offense. The popular choice at three, Mac Jones, was not a fit per Farrar. Lance is a different story.

Despite his relative inexperience, Lance was dubbed an “excellent fit,” as long as the 49ers were willing to wait. After breaking down all the good and bad from the North Dakota State signal caller, Farrar offered this:

So, a mixed bag, which is likely what Lance will provide at first when he hits the next level, because the next level has a tendency to hit back. There’s no question that Lance has all the attributes you want in a modern NFL quarterback, but as this game showed, there are also things he needs to develop before we go about crowning him to any significant degree. Lance may be similar to Josh Allen in this scenario as a quarterback whose abilities and potential make him a project in the short term, and a wrecker of buildings in a couple seasons under a coach who will bring out every bit of that potential.

Jimmy Garoppolo’s presence will allow the 49ers to bring Lance along slowly and fully develop into the building wrecker Farrar described.

He’s already adept at taking snaps from under center and working in play action, plus he has all the physical tools to be a nightmare for opposing defenses.

It may be slow going early in his career, but Lance is brilliant by all accounts and could wind up being ready sooner than expected. Even if he rides the bench his entire rookie campaign, the excitement level for Lance in 2022 is going to be extraordinarily high when the excellent fit for Shanahan’s system has gotten a chance to get his NFL legs under him before being unleashed on the NFL.