I’ve been making a few radio appearances in anticipation of the San Francisco 49ers Thursday Night Football matchup against the Oakland Raiders and the big question, well the one besides why this game is happening, is who will start C.J. Beathard or Nick Mullens?
Well, wonder no more! ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Nick Mullens will get the nod and start tonight.The 49ers followed it up a few minutes later to make it official.
The 49ers waived Tom Savage (yet again) and it indicated that Beathard would be active tonight, but as Fooch noted, it didn’t indicate if Beathard would start. Beathard injured his hand in the 49ers’ Week 8 loss to the Arizona Cardinals and was regarded as a game-time decision. The 49ers want to get out of this game as well as 2018 without reaggravating anything else and will need Bethard for the long-term. A three day rest period just wasn’t going to work. I imagine if this was a Sunday game, Beathard would no doubt be under center.
So now Nick Mullens will be starting. Mullens came to the 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2017 and spent that year’s season on the practice squad. He has not started a regular season NFL game in his career. He helped the 49ers win a preseason game to start 2018, but spent his time on the practice squad until Jimmy Garoppolo’s unfortunate knee injury put him in the starting lineup.
Things already got interesting for Thursday night as we will get a chance to watch Nick Mullens in NFL action. It will be interesting to see what happens with this game and what the 49ers decide going forward for the rest of the season, especially if Mullens plays lights out.
And here we go!