The 2023 debut of the Nick Mullens experience looked a lot like the early days of the Josh Dobbs experience.
Mullens, who became the fourth quarterback to start a game for the Vikings this season, had a rollercoaster afternoon in Minnesota's 27-24 overtime loss against the Bengals. He proved capable of at least operating Kevin O'Connell's offense and getting his playmakers involved, going 26 of 33 for 303 yards and two wild touchdown passes to Jordan Addison. He also made several egregiously poor decisions with the football.
On the second play of the Vikings' third possession on Saturday afternoon, Mullens wasn't on the same page with Justin Jefferson and threw what probably should've been a Dax Hill pick-six. Later that drive, with the Vikings in the red zone, he was picked off by Mike Hilton at the goal line while again targeting Jefferson.
"I just have to be careful, I have to be disciplined," Mullens said. "That’s a mistake that I’ll regret. You cannot turn the ball over in the red zone."
Later in the second quarter, with the Vikings again facing a third down in field goal range, Mullens tried to get rid of the ball while being sacked and wound up throwing a horrific interception to defensive tackle B.J. Hill. He also threw a pick-six on an attempted screen pass in the second half that was fortunately negated by an offsides penalty.
And yet, while those turnovers were costly — and could've been even worse — Mullens also did enough in Cincinnati to prove that he deserves another start next weekend. He got the ball to Addison, Jefferson, and T.J. Hockenson all game long, completing eight of his ten pass attempts that traveled at least ten yards past the line of scrimmage. Mullens' gunslinger style hurt the Vikings a few times, but it benefited them on the two Addison touchdowns.
"I think the biggest thing is Nick showed that he can execute our offense and really move the football team," O'Connell said afterwards. "I think what we've got to continue to work through are those plays where we don't try to do too much. ... Nick's out there for the second time this season, and there's a lot to work through. But as far as the yardage, we were able to generate a couple of big plays to help us score. I thought (he) played well enough to give us a chance to go to overtime on the road and win a game as a team. We just didn't do enough in the end."
O'Connell didn't outright say that Mullens will start next Sunday's big home game against the Lions, but it would be very surprising if that wasn't the case. Dobbs was the emergency third quarterback on Saturday, and O'Connell seemingly doesn't want to put rookie Jaren Hall out there this year if he doesn't have to.
Mullens has now thrown 29 touchdown passes and 25 interceptions in his career, so turnovers will always be a concern when he's out there. But that was the case with Dobbs, too. It's the case with most backup-caliber quarterbacks. Mullens will do his best to avoid those types of plays, but the Vikings can live with a few risky decisions if he's helping them move the ball like they did on Saturday. They racked up 424 total yards of offense in Cincinnati in a loss that had more to do with their defense collapsing down the stretch than the offense's turnovers or failed QB sneaks.
"We'll evaluate, but (Nick) did a lot of good things today," O'Connell said. "I liked the feel of both our run game and pass game, and how (they were) working together. We'll take a look at it, watch the film, and make a decision moving forward. Nick Mullens played how I expected him to play. We still need to find a way to protect the football when it's in our hands on all downs. We continue to strive for the execution of the other ten guys around the quarterback, which I thought, for the most part today, was pretty solid."
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