Struggles of Backup QBs Prompted Vikings' Much-Needed Trade For Nick Mullens

Saturday night's game against the 49ers made it clear: the Vikings had to do something about their backup quarterback position. A team that intends on competing for a division title and a playoff run couldn't go into the regular season with Sean Mannion and/or Kellen Mond as their QB options behind Kirk Cousins.

Recognizing that, Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah made a smart, necessary move on Monday morning, trading a conditional seventh-round pick to the Raiders for Nick Mullens, a sixth-year veteran with 17 career starts to his name.

The writing was on the wall after the 49ers game. Mond had taken a positive step forward in the preseason opener against the Raiders, completing his last seven passes and looking sharp in the process. His play against San Francisco was more indicative of what we've seen from the second-year QB for much of training camp. Mond held onto the ball too long at times, struggled to make the right reads, and threw two ugly interceptions as a result. He still has some upside because of his physical tools, but the Texas A&M product isn't ready to be an NFL No. 2 yet.

Mannion is a finished product at this point in his career; he's a below-replacement-level QB whose main value comes in the meeting rooms leading up to games. The veteran has mostly dinked and dunked through two preseason games, completing 18 of 27 passes for 144 yards (5.3 yards per attempt) with one turnover-worthy play, no big-time throws or touchdowns, and two sacks.

Head coach Kevin O'Connell didn't come out and say the Vikings were going to acquire a new quarterback, but you could read between the lines of his postgame comments and figure out that was probably going to be the case.

"Ultimately, you would have loved to come out of the night feeling like, 'Shoot, they both moved the team and scored a lot of points, and we've got a heck of a hard discussion and conversation ahead as a staff and as an organization,' O'Connell said. "Although we didn't do that, I still think there's some real teachable moments, and then some real moments where we'll be able to evaluate and kinda really look at where we are at that position ... Because as we've talked about, in my mind, the clock is going, and although I feel like our starters are in a great spot for Sept. 11, and that's where our emphasis is really on, there's a lot of jobs we gotta still allow to play themselves out so we feel good about the overall depth of our team."

Let's make one thing clear: Mullens isn't Case Keenum. He's 5-12 as an NFL starter, with a career passer rating of 87.3 and a 26-22 touchdown to interception ratio. If Cousins goes down for an extended period of time, the Vikings are in massive trouble (which is the case for basically every team). Nobody they could've acquired for a reasonable cost would've changed that reality.

But as a backup, for just a conditional seventh — which goes to the Raiders if he's merely active for a game this season — Mullens is a heck of an acquisition. For the 2022 season, he has a higher floor and ceiling than both Mannion and Mond. His presence likely makes Mannion cuttable and allows the Vikings to give Mond one more year to develop, potentially on the practice squad.

Mullens has played at a high level in regular season games before, which you can't say about either of the Vikings' other backup quarterbacks. In his first action as a starter with the 49ers back in 2018, he posted a 90.8 passer rating in eight games, with a rating above 100 in three of them and a PFF passing grade of at least 70 in four of them. Interceptions were an issue, but Mullens averaged 285 passing yards per game that season and threw multiple touchdown passes four times. In ten appearances in 2020, Mullens had three games with a PFF passing grade above 78.

At a basic level, Mullens is what you expect in an NFL backup quarterback. He's able to make routine throws with good timing and rhythm, which allows him to competently execute an offense and move the ball. Asking him to make difficult throws will lead to unpredictable results because he doesn't possess starting-caliber arm talent, but that's fine. All the Vikings would need the 27-year-old Southern Miss product to do if he's thrust into action this year would be to make simple throws and get the ball to his playmakers.

Mullens showed off that ability against the Vikings in Minnesota's preseason opener on August 14th, going 7 of 9 for 94 yards and a touchdown. Both of the deep shots he took fell asleep, but he was money on short and intermediate throws that came in rhythm. Mullens is able to run an offense, go through his progressions, and get the ball out on time with the right read more often that not.

That alone makes him a big upgrade for the Vikings at a very reasonable price.

Nick Mullens against the #Vikings eight days ago: 7 for 9, 94 yards, 1 TD. Also ran for a first down. Both of his incompletions came on deep shots.

Here's every dropback of his from that game: pic.twitter.com/o1VClxeD8C
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) August 22, 2022

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