Kyle Shanahan downplays value of Trey Lance's knowledge of offense
Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer says he will talk to former 49ers quarterback (current Cowboys quarterback) Trey Lance as Dallas prepares to visit San Francisco. On Wednesday, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan was asked how much Lance can reveal to the Cowboys about the San Francisco offense.
“As much as most coaches can," Shanahan told reporters. "You can see the plays on tape, you can explain what we look at and stuff like that, which usually you can when you can stack up a lot of tape over years, and we've been here for a while and previous. So hopefully he's talking to him all the time and making them focus totally on that instead of the simple stuff of watching the tape.”
While it's possible that Shanahan is engaged in reverse psychology, his explanation makes sense. The tape is the tape. Lance might know what the 49ers have tried to do against the Cowboys in the past. It's irrelevant to what the 49ers will do now, especially since the film from those games shows what the 49ers actually did.
The value is in the film. And the chess match comes from both teams using the film to their advantage.
For the Cowboys, it's about guessing what the 49ers will do. For the 49ers, it's about keeping the Cowboys guessing for as long as possible.
