Vikings Announce Nick Mullens as Their New Starting Quarterback

It’s official, the Nick Mullens Era is upon us. After mulling their options internally early this week, the Minnesota Vikings announced Tuesday that Nick Mullens will be their starting quarterback for Saturday’s game vs the Cincinnati Bengals. He’ll be their 4th starting QB of the season.

Minnesota Vikings name Nick Mullens as starting quarterback

Nick Mullens will start Saturday in Cincinnati. pic.twitter.com/s8QDinRlcP

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 12, 2023

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Mullens has appeared in 25 games during his 6-year NFL career, including 17 starts. He’s thrown for a total of 5,168 yards (65.4%), 27 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. He won’t be Kirk Cousins but he proved in three drives last week that he’ll be a much better option than Josh Dobbs.

Kevin O’Connell’s decision to start Mullens is not in the least bit surprising. After watching yet another miserable performance by Josh Dobbs in week 14, it was time to hand the reins over to someone else. When you’re digging for starting QBs like the Vikings currently are, you do everything you can to spark some magic.

Nick Mullens was the right choice.

We know a couple of things for sure. With Nick Mullens under center, the Vikings will have access to their entire playbook. No, he can’t make all of the same throws that Kirk can so his reads and routes will probably change some.

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But the checks, the verbiage, the little tweaks that Kevin O’Connell loves to throw into weekly gameplans are once again available to him, when many of them were not, with Josh Dobbs as starter.

Not only that, but it is impossible that Nick Mullens is a) as inaccurate or b) unable to progress through reads like Dobbs. Oh, and most importantly, he’s less likely to put Justin Jefferson in the hospital.