Nick Mullens, who spent all of his rookie season last year on the San Francisco 49ers' practice squad, has been named the starting quarterback for tonight's game at Levi's Stadium against the Oakland Raiders. The 49ers elevated him to the active roster following the ACL injury that ended Jimmy Garoppolo's season.
Quarterback C.J. Beathard sustained injuries to his right hand on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. That means Mullens will take his first snaps in a regular-season NFL game with Beathard serving as his backup.
The possibility of Mullens starting thrust him into the media spotlight. Head coach Kyle Shanahan discussed his confidence in the backup quarterback throughout the week. Below is a collection of what he had to say about Mullens.
From Tuesday's press conference...
How ready would Mullens be if forced to start?
"As ready as you can be. Nick works his tail off whether he was on the practice squad all last year, some of this year, since he's been the two. Nick's a very smart guy who works at it nonstop. He'll be able to go in there and execute the offense and knows what he's doing."
What do you like about Mullens?
"Just studying him on college. Our personnel department and [quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello] brought him to us because they found, Scangarello, our quarterbacks coach, watched a lot of film on him. Got to play a ton, played at a high level. He was very consistent in what he did. Played in more of a spread offense, but you could see how hard he would compete when running the ball and things like that, even though that wasn't his number one strength. But, also can play in the pocket when they asked him to. I remember one thing that we liked, I forget whether it was the East-West game or another one of those all-star games, I remember Rich telling me he interviewed him and asked him how he got ready for that game and he had to look up on YouTube how to do drops and stuff under center because he was always in gun throughout college. That's the type of guy he was. He's going to figure it out. He's going to work all day to figure it out on his own, with the help of coaches and stuff, he takes that as well as anyone."
How did you assess his preseason performance?
"I thought he played well in the preseason. He did good. Nick comes in there, moves the chains, competes hard, made some plays with his legs and his arm. Guys believe in him, and he's as competitive and confident as a guy I've been around. If he needs to play this week, he'll be on it."
Will the entire playbook be open to him if he starts?
"Yes. When you say the entire playbook, that just means does he know everything, can he spit it out? Nick's as good as them. He's been here for a year-and-a-half, the whole time we've been here. So, Nick's as prepared to call the plays and get everyone in the right spots as anyone we could have out there."
From Wednesday's KNBR interview...
How difficult will it be for Mullens to go from leading the scout team at one point to running the offense?
"Nick's been here for the entire time. He's been here for a year-and-a-half. He's extremely bright. He works at it as hard as anyone. As far as getting in there, spitting out the calls, knowing everything, knowing what to do, he's right there with C.J. and Jimmy. He doesn't have the experience of doing it. He doesn't have all the reps they do. He doesn't nearly get what those guys have gotten. But just from a mental standpoint of knowing what to do, we won't skip a beat in that way. The hard thing is, just on these two days that you have to prepare, you can't do any full-speed reps because the guys just aren't recovered. He's there mentally and everything but the first time he'll be throwing full speed to all these guys, if he plays, will be the first play of the game."
Will you need to scale back the playbook for Mullens?
"Nick is fine with knowing everything. We've got to play to his strengths and things like that. When Jimmy got in and hadn't been here very long, or if [Tom Savage] ever gets the opportunity to get in, that's when those guys, just knowing all the verbiage, knowing how to get all the guys in the right spot, that's when you've got to limit it just from a mental standpoint because they just don't have enough time to learn it all."