MAN OF MYSTERY
Lance has a Niners connection: His dad was in camp with last Super Bowl winner
Carlton Lance has a great, go-to line when asked about being in training camp with the 1994 49ers.
“I tell people: They flew Deion in, and I flew out,” Lance said recently by phone from his Hampton Ridge Financial office in Marshall, Minnesota.
Lance was signed on July 22, 1994. He was waived Aug. 4, 1994.
His stay wasn’t long at Sierra College in Rocklin. And, factually, Deion Sanders didn’t join the 49ers’ star-studded roster for another month, en route to NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors and the franchise’s fifth Lombardi Trophy.
But Lance got his shot. He’s appreciative all these years later for pursuing an NFL dream, one that his son Trey will chase as well Thursday night, perhaps when the 49ers draft No. 3
overall.
“Honestly it doesn’t matter if it’s third or 24th, if it’s Thursday, Friday or Saturday,” Lance said of his son’s prospects as one of the draft’s top quarterbacks. “All we need is one team.
“This mirrors his college recruitment. Same thing. ‘Not sure he’s good enough. Doesn’t throw enough.’ This is a mirror image. It’s no big deal. All we need is one team that values him.”
Trey Lance proved invaluable to North Dakota State, after top programs either passed on him or told him to abandon his quarterback dreams to play safety, like the University of Minnesota recruiters pitched 2 ½ hours east of small-town Marshall (population: 13,651).
Once he became NDSU’s starting quarterback in 2019, Lance went 160, threw 28 touchdown passes and had no interceptions as the Bison won the Football Championship Subdivision crown.
Add in his Kaepernick-esque rushing ability (10.6 carries per game, 1,100 yards in 2019) and NFL teams salivate over his still-raw potential.
Of the many father-son legacies unfolding in this draft -- including a slew of cornerbacks, as well as Stanford center Drew Dalman -- don’t forget about the Lances.
Trey Lance won’t be overlooked. It’s just a matter of where he goes in a first round rich with quarterbacks. His small sample size may scare teams, as NDSU opted out of the 2020 season, aside from an October win over Central Arkansas.
“We did not want him to start his (2018) freshman year, especially at quarterback,” Carlton Lance recalled. “He could get through it but it wouldn’t be at his potential. It was great to sit behind Easton (Stick) and learn what he needed to learn. Once on the field, he was ready.”
That same scenario should play out in the NFL, especially if he goes to the 49ers, who have Jimmy Garoppolo in place (and under contract through 2022). Lance could take a couple of years to develop, but his dad said teams will quickly realize his son has a special ability to promptly implement coaching tips.
“My parents were always super realistic with me,” Trey Lance said at his March 20 pro day. “They weren’t super strict but at the same time my action and words had to match up. … I do love football so it hasn’t been hard to spend time and be that football junkie.”
As Hall of Fame scout Gil Brandt said, Lance is “the most interesting of these quarterbacks, as to what his future in the league is or isn’t going to be.”
Lance has a 6-foot-4, 224-frame that is supremely mobile and can take a hit. He hasn’t filled out, yet. He turns only 21 on May 9.
He and his dad “talked about it a long time ago” that if he’s on the run, it’s best to go out of bounds, as a business decision. Otherwise, if in a gray area, Carlton Lance channeled his days as a defender and told his son “I’m going to take that shot.” So, if turning upfield, “do so with nothing but malice in your heart.”
While he describes his son as evenkeeled, “I was more animated,” Carlton said of his days as a Southwest State cornerback from 1988-91 (and a track star) to earn a spot in the school’s Hall of Honor.
His path to 49ers training camp was a wayward one.
He went to the Houston Oilers’ camp in 1992 but was cut before the season. So he headed to the Canadian Football League and was a rookie star for the 1993 Saskatchewan Roughriders.
That led him to the 49ers, when NFL free agency was taking root and the eventual Super Bowl champion brought in a parade of all-stars, including Sanders, Ken Norton Jr., Gary Plummer, Richard Dent, Rickey Jackson and Bart Oats.
“I’m a corner but they moved me to safety there,” Lance recalled. “I was done in by paralysis by analysis. Moving seems easy but once you’re back there, it’s tough.”
For example, Jerry Rice would go in motion, and Lance’s instincts as a cornerback would be to follow him, but, as a safety, he’d have to make a check and communicate. He simply wasn’t processing things fast enough, which, ironically, is one of his son’s best traits as a quarterback.
(Another bit of happenstance: Trey Lance won the Jerry Rice Award for most outstanding FCS freshman, and Carlton accepted it on his son’s behalf in January 2020, along with the Walter Payton Award for FCS offensive player of the year.)
Two weeks in 49ers camp was it for the elder Lance.
The 1994 team didn’t have space for him, not with a starting secondary of Eric Davis, Merton Hanks, Tim McDonald and, of course, Sanders. Davis, understandably, can’t remember Lance, not with so many players coming and going on that championship roster. Looking back, Lance acknowledges the greatness of Sanders, his fellow former Ft. Myers, Fla. prep star.
Defensive backs coach Tom Holmoe told Lance not to give up on his career. So Lance went to the World League. He played for the 1995 London Monarchs, alongside quarterback Brad Johnson, who’d win a Super Bowl with the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (and safety John Lynch, currently the 49ers’ general manager, for small-world trivia.)
“Once I was done there, I just hung it up,” Lance said. “It was an opportunity to play professional football, realize a dream and see some of the world.”
Now the world is anxious to see what his son can do with an NFL opportunity, perhaps on the 49ers.
“I would say it would be a great situation for any quarterback,” Carlton Lance said of the 49ers. “You have all the pieces. They were in the Super Bowl two years ago. They’re sitting in a great position for Garoppolo, who’s there and you can’t take anything away from him.” Except for his job.
Maybe all the 49ers need is another Lance in training camp to win another Lombardi Trophy, ending a title drought since that 1994 season.