Trey Lance's 8 games for 49ers were fewest ever for a Top 5 pick in common draft era
The 49ers traded three first-round picks and a third-round pick to move up to draft Trey Lance. He ended up playing just eight games for them.
That's unprecedented in the common draft era, the period since the AFL and NFL began drafting players together in 1967. As noted by Field Yates of ESPN, Lance's eight games are the fewest for a Top 5 pick with the team he first played with since the common draft began.
Teams just don't give up on Top 5 picks, especially quarterbacks, as quickly as the 49ers have given up on Lance. To find a Top 5 quarterback who even comes close, you'd have to go back to Art Schlichter, the fourth overall pick of the Colts in 1982, who played in just 13 games in an NFL career remembered more for gambling suspensions than for anything he did on the field.
Schlichter never played in the NFL again, but he did have a brief comeback when he won the Arena Football League MVP award in 1990, leading the Detroit Drive to the Arena Bowl title. Lance will hope for a higher-profile career resurgence with the Cowboys.
