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49ers rookie QB Trey Lance has his first splash play, on a nice 80-yard TD toss (video)

It took one quarter for the San Francisco 49ers to see what rookie quarterback Trey Lance can bring to the offense.

Lance faked a handoff on a bootleg to his left, a staple play in the Kyle Shanahan offense. He stopped just beyond the hash marks. For most quarterbacks, you wouldn't ask to throw a route almost 50 yards downfield to beyond the far numbers. But, Lance has some pretty special arm talent.

Lance stopped and unleashed a perfect throw to Trent Sherfield, who caught it and ran the rest of the way for an 80-yard touchdown.

It went nearly 50 yards in the air, from one end of the field to the other. Plenty of NFL quarterbacks can't make that throw.

Lance finished 5-of-14, but had some receiver drops. He had 128 yards passing. He didn't have a rushing attempt, but that will change in the regular season when the team will let him show off his mobility.

Jimmy Garoppolo is a very safe quarterback who consistently is near the bottom of the league in average air yards per throw. It's just one throw in one preseason game, but we can already see that Shanahan can open up options in his offense with Lance at quarterback. He can do things Garoppolo can't. They didn't trade up to draft Lance third overall to keep him in the garage. He's going to play and it's likely going to be sooner rather than later.

Now that we've seen Lance's rocket throw for an 80-yard touchdown, it'll be hard to hold down the hype.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance (5) had a great highlight in his preseason debut. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance (5) had a great highlight in his preseason debut. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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