Trey Lance has left the door open for an increasingly intriguing Chargers battle

For all intents and purposes, Trey Lance is still the QB2 for the Los Angeles Chargers.

He's taken virtually all of the second-team reps through training camp, and his familiarity with Mike McDaniel's scheme has come across on tape. He looked comfortable and confident in his on-field passing drills, and his upside as a scrambler could make him an intriguing developmental project for the new offensive staff. Plus, with 'iron man' Justin Herbert at the helm of the offense, the backup quarterback situation isn't the largest immediate concern in Los Angeles.

But questions have swirled all offseason about how long Lance still has left in Los Angeles. He's back with the team on another one-year deal, but DJ Uiagalelei's notably strong showing during the offseason program—combined with Lance's sub-par start in Week 18 against the Denver Broncos— at the very least added intrigue to the equation.

Neither quarterback looked particular inspiring in the Chargers' preseason opener against the Houston Texans. But Lance was especially spotty, and he may have missed his opportunity to definitively close the door on Uiagalelei's challenge for his role.

Trey Lance still isn't in immediate danger— but he's certainly left the door open for Uiagalelei

Lance's outing wasn't completely terrible on Thursday night. He ultimately completed 12 of his 20 passes for 164 yards, making some nice completions and periodically looking to be in command of the offense. He also had a couple of solid moments extending plays with his legs and evading closing Houston defenders in the backfield.

But if Herbert goes down at any point this season, is there enough confidence to keep Lance on the field for multiple games?

He threw a number of near-interceptions, misreading the defense and unnecessarily putting the ball in harm's way on multiple occasions. His one real interception was a complete misread of the Texans' zone defense— one where he looped the ball directly to the looming Texans defender (Kamari Ramsey) on his least inspiring play of the night.

Granted, Uiagalelei didn't have the most impressive outing, either. He completed six of his nine passes for 120 yards, but he looked shaky when he entered the game and misdialed a couple of his initial downfield throws. He's lucky he didn't get intercepted as well.

But if Uiagalelei truly had any momentum heading into Thursday night, Lance's performance only fueled that.

Jim Harbaugh has stated that the Chargers' starters will see limited reps in the preseason, and that means that both Lance and Uiagalelei will get some extra chances over the coming two matchups to duke this out further. For the time being, it doesn't feel as though Uiagalelei has truly carved out a path to supplanting Lance, especially because we haven't seen the former UDFA in any real NFL action to this point.

After Lance's performance on Thursday night, though, this remains a competition to keep an eye on over the rest of camp. That's likely not the outcome Lance was hoping for when he began his start against the Texans.

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