George Kittle might have let the cat out of the bag and revealed the San Francisco 49ers’ starting quarterback for Week 4.
The San Francisco 49ers have not had the greatest luck to start off the 2020 NFL regular-season in terms of health. San Francisco’s skeleton crew got the luck of the draw in terms of scheduling, as they defeated the lowly New York Giants. With Week 4 getting underway, the 49ers offense is getting a boost in the form of stud tight end George Kittle, who left the team’s season-opener with a knee injury, but was a full participant in practice this week. But who will be throwing him the ball this Sunday night against the Philadelphia Eagles?
During a media session on Thursday, Kittle was asked about backup quarterback Nick Mullens and said he was looking forward to playing with him. Basically Kittle all but confirmed that starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo won’t be cleared to play for this weekend.
The Nick Mullens Show continues for another week
The news isn’t exactly a shock, considering Mullens took all the first-team reps in practices this week, and Garoppolo didn’t take a single snap.
After Kittle left San Francisco’s Week 1 matchup with a knee sprain, the hits just kept on coming the following week. During the 49ers’ matchup against the New York Jets, Garoppolo suffered a high-ankle sprain, forcing Mullens to enter in relief, just like he did back in 2018.
Mullens didn’t have to do much against the Jets, considering the game was over just as it started. The former undrafted free agent out of Southern Mississippi completed 8-of-11 pass attempts for 71 yards and an interception. Mullens put up great numbers the following week against the Giants defense, as he completed 69.4-percent of his passes for 343 yards and one touchdown.
Now, he faces a winless Eagles team that just played the Cincinnati Bengals to a tie. However, it’s far from an easy matchup for Mullens, as Philadelphia surrendered the seventh-fewest passing yards per game this season (224.3). Yet, the task will be a bit easier, as he’ll have his security blanket in Kittle to target on Sunday night.