49ers 2021 Goal: Less focus on Nick Mullens

Nick Mullens quarterback play has been awful. But when the backup is the discussion, that doesn't spell for a successful season.

Over the course of the 2020 season, it has been a constant debate on the 49ers quarterback situation. San Francisco fans all over the internet are pulling out there “twitter fingers” to give their opinion on who should be under center on what seems like a week by week basis.

That’s where things have gone wrong. The entire fanbase is preaching for an upgrade at the backup quarterback role. I wonder if the other NFC West teams have this issue? Probably not.

Games missed by the starting quarterback since 2018 due to injury:

Seattle 0

Los Angeles 0

Arizona 0

San Francisco 21 (23 if Jimmy Garoppolo misses the season)

Seattle has had the constant of Russell Wilson, Los Angeles with Jared Goff -- whatever your thoughts are on him, Goff hasn’t missed a game due to injury -- and Arizona has had Sam Bradford, Josh Rosen, and Kyler Murray all be named the starter and none have missed a game from injury either.

While Nick Mullens isn’t the one deciding to be out there, Mullens is in this position because Garoppolo hasn't been able to stay healthy for back-to-back seasons in his career. Mullens has looked terrible posting a 79.5 QB Rating with more interceptions than touchdowns in his past five starts. For the record, it’s not the offensive line's fault that Mullens is consistently overthrowing or underthrowing his targets. Mullens may be a backup but he needs to play a hell of a lot better if he wants to stay in this league.

With Mullens inefficiency stated above, once again do you think Seattle, Los Angeles, or Arizona are having this dilemma about upgrading a BACKUP position?

#49ers’ fans been so starved of competent quarterback play, you guys want Marcus Mariota or Mitchell Trubisky as improvements...

— Akash Anavarathan (@akashanav) December 18, 2020

Last night after one completion the 49ers fan base was ready to sign Marcus Mariota to be the 2021 backup QB. Mariota is the highest-paid backup in the league. If the 49ers need a “miracle” to extend Richard Sherman -- in what intelligent way are the 49ers supposed to pay a backup quarterback in the market of $7-8 million per season? It’s rubbish to spend that capital for a backup when you already have a high-paid starter.

The solution would be to replace Garoppolo with someone that makes you forget the name of the backup quarterback because he’s never on the field.