Comparing 49ers' Trey Lance to Robert Griffin III, Cam Newton I Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast

In this edition of the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast, Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens talk about how the San Francisco quarterback is similar to the former Washington and Carolina signal-callers. Hear the full conversation on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

[BAT HITS BALL, CROWD CHEERS]

MATT HARMON: You bring up the Trey Lance thing. And I do want to, just again, even with the Jimmy Garoppolo cloud hanging over him and everything that we've had with this new contract for Jimmy, bringing him back on the roster, I still want to leave open, even if it's just the door cracked a little bit, that Trey Lance might come out in week one and just melt everybody's faces and be really good.

And I think the example I come back to a lot-- and obviously there's Kyle Shanahan connective tissue here-- is Robert Griffin III with Washington in his rookie year. I mean, there was nothing that preseason that would have led you to believe like, oh, this is going to be real exciting. I mean, Robert Griffin was an exciting prospect. But it's not like they showed anything in pre-season.

I'll also bring up Cam Newton as well with the Carolina Panthers. Cam actually looked horrific in his first preseason game. Then he comes in like-- I mean, he wasn't perfect in her first start. But he threw it for like 300, 400 yards against the Packers in his first game. And he did that consistently as a rookie.

ANDY BEHRENS: He had like back-to-back 400-yard games, right?

MATT HARMON: Yeah, something like that.

ANDY BEHRENS: That wasn't even what we were excited about with Cam.

MATT HARMON: Exactly. And the Griffin example really is pertinent because I think it was week one against the New Orleans Saints that year in Robert Griffin's rookie year. And he just lit them up. I mean, it was really exciting. And all of a sudden, it's like, oh, forget every concern you had about this. This is something different. It's something new.

Mike and Kyle Shanahan have designed this crazy offense around this guy. And he's taken like pretty much exactly what I think Kyle hopes that Trey Lance is going to do for his offense, just take it up to the next level. So there is a chance that week one--

And there's a lot of Niners fans that I follow that basically will tell you-- and not in the Dalton Del Don section, but on Twitter and stuff like that will tell you, there is no coach that cares less about preseason than Kyle Shanahan. The guy really could not give a damn about what goes on in the preseason. So there is a chance that Trey Lance just comes out in week one and knocks everybody's pants off basically.

ANDY BEHRENS: For sure. It's why this game is so interesting. If Trey Lance didn't have QB1 overall upside, I probably wouldn't have listed this game. It would be far less compelling to me. But the range of outcomes for him is everywhere between QB1 and loses his job after eight weeks, right? It's crazy. And this is, I think, going to be at least one early game where we just get a complete understanding of the way they want this offense to look week in and week out.