Will the 49ers Have a QB Controversy if Nick Mullens Performs Well?
Backup quarterback Nick Mullens is set to start in his first game Sunday for the San Francisco 49ers since the end of the 2018 season.
Jimmy Garoppolo is still nursing a high-ankle sprain, so Mullens starting Week 3 is not a shock. I also wouldn't count on Garoppolo returning in Week 4 either, but a lot of that may depend on how Mullens performs against the Giants.
If Mullens does a good job against them, then surely Kyle Shanahan will feel more comfortable rolling him out against the Philadelphia Eagles.
But lets say he does have a solid outing on Sunday and makes Garoppolo look replaceable. He surely didn't look too hot against the Arizona Cardinals Week 1 and was a major factor as to why the 49ers lost that game.
So will the 49ers have a quarterback controversy if Mullens performs well?
Not at all.
I have been seeing plenty of fans and even pundits float this idea around that Garoppolo is expendable. The reality is that he is not. All of that stemmed from his poor outing against Arizona.
Yes, he was bad on all accounts that game, but acting rash and overemotional over ONE game is absurd. The overall body of work with Garoppolo says that he is the reason the 49ers win games. Garoppolo gives the 49ers the best chance of winning on Sundays.
There is a reason Shanahan didn't immediately rule Garoppolo out against the Giants. It is because he himself acknowledges that Garoppolo is their best option. He surely does not want to go through having 2018 flashbacks again with Mullens as the starter going forward.
Plus, Mullens is more of a wild card at quarterback.
What I mean by that is he will not abide by Shanahan's instructions one-hundred percent of the time when he radios him about the play. Mullens can do his own thing once the ball is snapped, whereas Garoppolo will look to execute Shanahan's instructions to the fullest.
So with Mullens, there is some pushback on how to operate and with Garoppolo he is almost like a "yes" man. That is why his performance against the Cardinals was atrocious. He was thinking too much once the first read wasn't available to him.
Against the Jets, he had a nice little bounce back all while on a bum ankle. Despite it being against a subpar Jets team, it was still impressive to see Garoppolo do all of that injured.
Regardless of how Mullens plays on Sunday, he will not be the quarterback going forward. This is Garoppolo's team until he proves he is the absolute reason the 49ers are losing games.
