Vikes look to Mullens at QB
In this unsettled season for the Minnesota Vikings, Nick Mullens is next up at quarterback.
Coach Kevin O’Connell announced Tuesday that Mullens will start Saturday at Cincinnati after relieving an ineffective Joshua Dobbs last week and helping lead the Vikings to a 3-0 victory at Las Vegas.
“I think we’re all really excited to see what Nick can do with a week of preparation. Even on a short week, I think Nick is going to have a great opportunity,” O’Connell said.
Mullens is the fourth different starter for the Vikings (7-6), who have stayed in control of a spot in the playoffs despite losing Kirk Cousins for the season. They’ve never used that many QBs in the same season before in franchise history, and they haven’t started three quarterbacks since 2014.
Dobbs arrived in an emergency trade with Arizona after Cousins tore his Achilles tendon. Rookie Jaren Hall got the first start in place of Cousins, but suffered a concussion early in that Nov. 5 game at Atlanta and yielded to Dobbs before he rallied the Vikings to victory.
Though the Vikings only had one field goal to show for his time in the game against the Raiders, Mullens moved the chains with third down throws three times on that decisive drive.
Mullens has 17 career starts in the NFL, including eight each in the 2018 and 2020 seasons with San Francisco as an injury fill-in for Jimmy Garoppolo. He has been with five different organizations over seven seasons in the NFL, though he’s only appeared in a game with three. He started one game for the Browns in 2021. He was traded to the Vikings by the Raiders during training camp in 2022.