SF 49ers need Jimmy Garoppolo back after Nick Mullens loses vs. Eagles

The SF 49ers saw Nick Mullens cough up an ugly 25-20 loss to the Eagles, pointing out just how much the Niners need Jimmy Garoppolo back.

No, there’s no reason for the SF 49ers or their fans to think quarterback Nick Mullens should get starts over the starter, Jimmy Garoppolo.

While Mullens engineered an effective 343-yard performance in Week 3 against a bad New York Giants team, his efforts against the previously 0-2-1 Philadelphia Eagles went exactly in the opposite direction.

True, the offensive line wasn’t great for Mullens. And Philly’s defensive line is good, too.

Yet the 25-20 loss on Sunday Night Football pointed out two key factors: Mullens is merely a decent backup signal-caller, and Garoppolo needs to return as soon as he physically can from the knee injury he suffered in Week 2 against the New York Jets.

Mullens’ mistakes can be broken down into three specific categories:

1. Holding onto the ball too long
2. Missing open targets
3. Odd decisions to throw right into Philadelphia’s defense

Entering Sunday’s contest, Mullens had taken all four sacks when in the pocket for 2.5 seconds or more, per Pro Football Focus. That number will spike after Mullens was sacked five times and hit 15 times. One of those sacks also resulted in a Mullens fumble, and Philly capitalized with points off the turnover.

Early in the first quarter, Mullens overthrew fullback Kyle Juszczyk for what would have been a long gain, potentially a touchdown. The play before, Mullens also overthrew wide receiver Kendrick Bourne.

And those two interceptions? Well, they were awfully ugly to the Nth degree:

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1312927979471740928

https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/1312952174083805185

Hard to figure out what Mullens was looking for on either of those two plays.

“We weren’t able to get him into much of a rhythm,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said of Mullens’ efforts. “It seemed like whenever he did, something else came up. And we were able to get him into much of a rhythm today.”

Shanahan elected to swap Mullens out for No. 3 quarterback C.J. Beathard in the fourth quarter, and the embattled Beathard nearly engineered a comeback win for San Francisco.

Still, the Niners loss when paired with Mullens’ struggles prompts the urge to get Garoppolo back as soon as possible.

SF 49ers would have won with Jimmy Garoppolo under center

Yes, Garoppolo has his own history with boneheaded throws, and there could have been any chance for Jimmy G to toss interceptions of his own.

Even though Garoppolo has yet to toss a pick in 1.5 games this season.

Where it matters, though, is Garoppolo would have likely hit Juszczyk easily for that one miss Mullens had. And when San Francisco’s running game broke down a bit against the stout Eagles defensive line, Garoppolo’s abilities as a traditional dropback passer are notably better than Mullens.

As Pro Football Focus pointed out prior to Week 4:

• Jimmy Garoppolo with no play action: 127.9 passer rating
• Nick Mullens with no play action: 82.1

Mullens isn’t equipped to work well as a traditional dropback passer, and it showed on Sunday night. True, Garoppolo has traditionally put up better numbers on play-action passes, too. But the latter has far more skills within the pocket instead of relying on the fakes and bootlegs Mullens essentially needs.

So, to put it bluntly, teams will look to shut down the SF 49ers rushing attack with Mullens under center to negate play action’s effectiveness.

The Eagles did it well enough, limiting starting running back Jerick McKinnon to 54 yards and an average of 3.9 yards per carry.

Now, San Francisco is looking at a 2-2 record instead of potentially going up 3-1, which would have been far more likely with Jimmy G under center.