Jerry Rice: 49ers should stick with Trey Lance over Jimmy Garoppolo

Hall of Famer and 49ers legend Jerry Rice made his weekly appearance on San Francisco sports radio station 95.7 The Game on Monday and defended Lance during his "The Morning Roast" interview. 

"I'm sure Trey, he would love to have that interception back," Rice said, according to David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. "He missed a couple of throws; the one he overthrew to the tight end. But I felt like he played OK. I feel like he did enough to win that football game. And you've got to look at what happened with the Chicago Bears. They sort of won that game the last five minutes left in that ballgame."

As was predicted by multiple analysts as recently as last week, some fans are already calling for the 49ers to go back to veteran Jimmy Garoppolo over Lance for the home opener against the division-rival Seattle Seahawks. Rice advised everyone to pump the figurative brakes regarding such takes. 

"Hold up, man. It's the first game of the season, guys. Come on, now," Rice responded to the notion of potentially benching Lance. "I understand competition. There ain't nothing wrong with competition. I think Trey, he has the maturity where he's going to deal with this. He knows that this is his team, and it's up to him to lose the [starting] quarterback position.

"I think he's only going to get better. Look at some of the throws he made to Brandon Aiyuk and some of the other receivers, guys. We need to dial [the quarterback debate] back just a little bit."

While Rice is accurate, it's repeatedly been pointed out that the 49ers are "built to win right now" and, thus, cannot be too patient as Lance endures expected growing pains. Lance will remain QB1 this week, but one wonders if head coach Kyle Shanahan will consider giving Garoppolo the nod for the Week 3 game at the Denver Broncos on Sept. 25 if his team is 0-2 at this time next week.