Trey Lance arm fitness shouldn’t be a concern for 49ers

The 49ers’ offseason quarterback dialog took a brand new twist when a former NFL offensive lineman launched a brand new variation of criticism of Trey Lance coming vaguely from throughout the 49ers group. “Arm health” was the phrase du jour Wednesday as followers tried to decipher precisely Altitude Sports Radio’s Ryan Harris used it to explain a number of the organizational misgivings about San Francisco’s younger quarterback.

To unravel what which may imply, we spoke with Associate Professor of UCSF Orthopedic Surgery and Director of Sports Medicine at Benioff Children’s Hospital, Dr. Nirav Pandya concerning the concept of arm health for a quarterback.

Here’s what Harris originally said on CBS Sports HQ:

“From gamers I’ve talked to and coaches I’ve talked to who’re on the 49ers, Trey Lance is absolutely leaving so much to be desired by way of the health of his arm, whether or not or not he can digest the playbook, and might actually begin to course of the sport at a excessive degree.”

He elaborated on Twitter that arm health meant “the power to constantly throw the soccer all season lengthy and past to the playoffs.”

Lance threw simply 318 passes in school, and 71 final season.  While processing and playbook data are frequent quarterback critiques, and critiques Lance should reply, the arm health portion is a brand new one. It’s so new, in truth, Dr. Pandya has by no means heard the time period used for a QB.

“I’ve by no means heard that a couple of QB, solely pitchers,” Pandya mentioned. “QBs can undoubtedly harm their shoulder, however within the absence of some structural situation, they don’t throw sufficient or quick sufficient to have basic sturdiness points. That’s why you don’t see QBs getting Tommy John surgical procedure.”

The throwing movement for a quarterback and the amount of throws a quarterback makes don’t put the identical stress on the arm that throwing a baseball does. That’s why not even an extended, grueling offseason coaching program could be sufficient to wear down a QB.

A study conducted by Jacob M. Kirsch, M. Tyrrell Burrus, and Asheesh Bedi that explored frequent accidents for professional quarterbacks discovered that any situation with a QB’s arm have a tendency to come back from affect, not due to use:

Shoulder accidents are essentially the most prevented higher extremity damage amongst skilled soccer quarterbacks. The quarterback place is disproportionately impacted by shoulder accidents when in comparison with skilled athletes at different positions. Moreover, opposite to different skilled throwing athletes, nearly all of higher extremity accidents within the skilled quarterback outcome from direct contact versus the throwing movement.

There are loads of questions Lance should reply on the sphere, however the health of his arm isn’t more likely to be one among them. While Harris mentioned Lance may repair the arm health downside with offseason work and dedication, Dr. Pandya is much less involved that it’ll even be a problem.

“Unless there’s some arm damage we don’t learn about, I wouldn’t fear about it in any respect,” Dr. Pandya mentioned.