49ers news: Jets’ Robert Saleh considered ex-Niners QB Nick Mullens

Former 49ers head coach Robert Saleh mulled over possibly adding now-Eagles quarterback Nick Mullens to his offseason roster.

There’s a good chance San Francisco 49ers fans want to see their former defensive coordinator, now-New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh, do well in his new gig. In many ways, Saleh is the proverbial “one of our own,” the coordinator who wasn’t particularly loved early on but ended up becoming a fan favorite over his last two years with the Niners.

To a lesser extent, there’s probably a portion of San Francisco’s fanbase that wants to see its former backup quarterback, Nick Mullens, do well, too.

Granted, Mullens flamed out last season in relief of the injured starter, Jimmy Garoppolo, posting a league-high 3.7 interception percentage over the course of eight starts. While Mullens’ efforts last year certainly frustrated fans, at least the former undrafted free agent carved out a nice career for himself after being a relative unknown entering 2018.

Mullens recently signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, who are going through their own changes in the quarterback room.

Interestingly enough, though, Saleh was considering adding Mullens as a Jets backup this offseason, bringing him aboard to support Gang Green’s top selection in this year’s NFL Draft, BYU quarterback Zach Wilson.

Saleh told the following to Yahoo! Sports shortly after Mullens signed with Philly:

"We had discussions, but we felt these young quarterbacks deserved an opportunity to showcase who they are and I’m excited for Nick to get that opportunity in Philadelphia."

Of the young quarterbacks Saleh described, they include Wilson, James Morgan and Mike White, none of whom have thrown a regular-season pass at the NFL level.

Did Robert Saleh miss an opportunity to land the former 49ers backup?

Hindsight will say whether or not Saleh and the Jets should have brought Mullens aboard.

Despite his flaws, Mullens had a decent command of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense during his four years in San Francisco, often receiving praise from the 49ers head coach for knowing where to go with the ball. Perhaps only Mullens’ physical limitations prevented him from being anything more than an OK backup.

Yet Saleh’s offensive coordinator in New York, former Niners pass-game coordinator Mike LaFleur, is expected to operate a similar offensive system to what Shanahan has in San Francisco.

It’s complex, has a lot of terminologies and can take a full year to absorb.

In that regard, it might have been smart for the Jets to onboard a player like Mullens, who could have at least served as an advisor of sorts for Wilson. And as 2018 showed, Mullens wasn’t horrible to the point of being a complete non-starter.

It’s anyone’s guess whether the same could be said of New York’s two current backups to Wilson.

Perhaps Saleh understood Mullens wouldn’t provide the kind of help Wilson needed, or it’s possible LaFleur’s offense will be tailored differently to Wilson and not a carbon copy of what Shanahan implements. Maybe Morgan and White are impressing Saleh enough to make Mullens a not-needed commodity.

To date, the only two players Saleh has brought over from the 49ers are running back Tevin Coleman and defensive end Ronald Blair.