Nick Mullens won't have to play the role of safety anymore. That's the position he would often find himself at as a member of the San Francisco 49ers practice squad. Mullens is always willing to do whatever he can to help the team succeed, even if it means being teased by general manager John Lynch and the coaching staff about his backpedaling technique.
Now, Mullens is preparing for his second NFL start at quarterback after an impressive Week 9 debut against the Oakland Raiders. It's rare that you see a story like his — a one-time practice squad player thrust into the spotlight of back-to-back primetime games.
Credit quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello for forcing Lynch and the 49ers to pay attention to the Southern Miss product. Lynch joined KNBR on Friday morning and shared what went into bringing Mullens to San Francisco.
When Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan arrived, they opted not to keep any of the quarterbacks from the previous regime. That meant entering free agency without a quarterback on the roster. That also meant needing to come out of the draft with a couple of new signal callers.
"We zeroed in on some guys that we would draft, and then we had a pile — like we do at every position — where late in the draft, we'd like to take this guy or in free agency," Lynch explained.
The 49ers finished the draft with third-round selection C.J. Beathard out of Iowa. That pre-draft pile also included Mullens, who Scangarello and regional scout Darrell Moody took a liking to. The position coach liked Mullens so much that he convinced the 49ers to use one of their 30 pre-draft visits on the quarterback.
"We were giving Rich a hard time, but he felt that passionate," Lynch said.
So Mullens had his visit to Santa Clara. He showed up in a suit and tie which caught the attention of Lynch and Shanahan — but not necessarily in a good way.
"He looked like he was about 15 years old," Lynch said. "We literally excused ourselves and said, 'Are you kidding me, Scangarello?'"
Still, the 49ers were impressed with Mullens' college film from Southern Miss, where he broke a lot of Brett Favre's records.
"Kyle started quizzing him on the board," Lynch said. "We start just talking life, start talking ball with him, and we became very impressed with him very quickly."
Mullens will make his second start on Monday night against the New York Giants.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.