The San Francisco 49ers are traveling to face the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday, and Nick Mullens will remain the team’s starting quarterback. He has had successively worse performances since taking over as starter against the Oakland Raiders three weeks ago, but Kyle Shanahan is comfortable with him starting for the time being.
Shanahan has repeatedly said he will evaluate the position each week. Mullens had a historically good debut against the Raiders, took a step back against the Giants, and struggled in a big way against the Bucs. Things get more difficult the rest of the season with the 49ers traveling to Seattle, and then hosting Denver, Seattle, and Chicago. All four are top ten defenses and will present a serious challenge to Mullens and the offense.
Shanahan would not commit to Mullens starting the rest of the season. He said if Mullens struggled, he would be put C.J. Beathard back in the lineup. Shanahan said the offense played poorly as a whole on Sunday, but considering the upcoming matchups, would anybody really be surprised to see Beathard move back into the lineup at some point?
All of this is just a matter of getting through the season and back to Jimmy Garoppolo, but these final five games offer a great chance for evaluating the backup quarterback position.