He has started 17 games. His eighteenth comes today in Cincinnati. Is Vikings quarterback Nick Mullens ready for it?
Coach Kevin O’Connell believes he is.
“There’s a reason why last year we identified Nick Mullens as the guy we wanted to be one snap away,” O’Connell recently told SiriusXM NFL Radio. “A lot of it had to do with that stretch of time he has played. He’s incredibly smart. He is an unbelievable guy in terms of preparation, some of the work he does on his own. His influence and ability to impact the quarterback room in a really positive way.
“And then I’ve always thought Nick as a fundamentally sound, twitchy thrower of the football. He’s accurate. And the biggest thing for Nick, you know, Nick would have been the guy to get the opportunity to go in the game when Kirk did go down, coming up on six games ago. But he just wasn’t healthy. And we had to give him the time to allow his back to settle down. We were able to do that, and also find a way to win three out of five of these first five opportunities with Kirk out, and I think Josh Dobbs deserves a lot of credit for that.”
Dobbs does deserve credit for that, even if his reward has been a plunge to the third string, emergency quarterback role.
Regardless, it’s now Mullens’s time to shine. If he can.
“He can move the football team, he can run the show and get in there and be a presence in that huddle to hopefully implore our group to be at their best and that’s the 10 other guys around him doing their job so that the quarterback can simply just do his and we can have some production on offense and move the football,” O’Connell said.
The offense has not been moving well the past few games. They had zero points before Mullens replaced Dobbs. Mullens managed only three — but that was enough to secure a win.
With four games left, and the NFC North title more plausibly in reach than anyone ever would have imagined, Mullens has an opportunity to prove that he belongs. Especially in a league that needs more competent quarterbacks.
For his career, Mullens is 5-12 as a starter. He has completed 65.4 percent of his throws, with 27 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions. He averages 7.7 yards per attempt, with a so-so passer rating of 88.0.
