© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Competition has been a theme throughout the 2019 offseason. In the third year of the Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch six-year plan, the 49ers have finally fielded a deep enough roster to promote competition at most starting spots, contrary to last year.
Despite Nick Mullens’ encouraging 2018 performance, he is not excluded from that line of thinking.
On Tuesday, at the annual owners meetings in Phoenix, Kyle Shanahan said Mullens and C.J. Beathard will enter training camp on a level playing field. The backup quarterback job is up for grabs.
“We’ll flip a coin the first day,” Shanahan told reporters when he was asked about who will take the first rep.
Shanahan has stood by Beathard, his 2017 third-round pick, through difficult circumstances. As a rookie, he was thrown into a fruitless situation midway through the season, on a winless team at the time, with minimal playmakers. Beathard took one hard hit after the next throughout a six-game losing streak. Then, newly acquired Jimmy Garoppolo swooped in and won five straight games, and the keys to the organization were handed over.
Beathard did not show much improvement in his sophomore year with Garoppolo out for the season with a torn ACL. Beathard lost all five of his starts, with each promising outing preceding a disappointing one. Beathard gave the 49ers real chances to win at Los Angeles (Chargers) and Green Bay, but late mistakes prevented marquee road victories. He also lost to the Arizona Cardinals, who will pick No. 1 in April’s draft, two different times.
Mullens’ collective performance was one of the season’s most pleasant surprises. In Week 13, with Beathard nursing a wrist injury, Mullens got the start, and the 49ers beat the Oakland Raiders, 34-3. Mullens went 16-22 with 262 yards and three touchdowns, statistically one of the best NFL debuts in history. Mullens showed he wasn’t a one-time success story. He maintained consistency over his next seven starts, keeping the starting job even when Beathard’s health improved.
When comparing the two, the numbers favor Mullens. His 2,277 passing yards are the fourth-most for a quarterback through his first eight starts in NFL history, behind only Patrick Mahomes, Andrew Luck, and Cam Newton. Mullens finished fifth in the NFL in 2018 with 8.31 yards per attempt. His 285 yards per game were seventh in the league. His 64.2 completion percentage was slightly better than Baker Mayfield’s. Mullens tallied 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Beathard posted 1,252 yards, eight touchdowns, and seven interceptions on 60.4 percent passing. He averaged 7.4 yards per attempt, which was right around the league average.
Most importantly, in their starts, Mullens went 3-5 and Beathard went 0-5. Sure, Mullens benefited from playing a bad Raiders team. Beathard had more challenging road games. But Mullens also sealed a close win over the Denver Broncos. One week later, he led the 49ers to their first win over the Seahawks in the teams’ last 10 matchups.
“He has gotten better each game,” Shanahan said after the Denver win. “He has played very consistent, and I’m very excited that it’s not an easy decision anymore.”
After Mullens went 20-29 with 275 yards and a touchdown in the win over Seattle, Shanahan doubled down, pegging Mullens as the starter moving forward.
“He’s done too good of a job,” Shanahan said about Mullens. “We’d love to get C.J. more playing time, but Nick’s earned it, and I’m not taking him out.”
Mullens regressed a bit in his final two starts, against Chicago and Los Angeles (Rams). Maybe that factored into Shanahan’s comments Tuesday that indicate there isn’t a gap between Mullens and Beathard.
But the 49ers have something most teams don’t: three quarterbacks with recent NFL starting experience. The team’s unlucky injury history has underscored the need for quality quarterback depth. No 49ers quarterback has started more than 12 games in a season since Colin Kaepernick in 2016.