EAGAN, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings acquired quarterback Nick Mullens from the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday for a conditional 2024 draft decide, giving them an extra possibility behind starter Kirk Cousins amid an uneven summer time for his incumbent backups.
Mullens will get an opportunity to unseat Sean Mannion and Kellen Mond, who’ve been competing for the job. Neither has stood out in coaching camp or in two preseason video games, the place the 2 have cut up reps evenly. Coach Kevin O’Connell declined to endorse both of them after Saturday night time’s 17-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, throughout which they mixed to finish 20 of 35 passes for 147 yards, with Mond throwing two interceptions.
“In the end you’d have beloved to return out of the night time feeling like, shoot, they each moved the workforce and scored a whole lot of factors and we have got a heck of a tough dialogue and dialog forward as a employees and as a corporation,” O’Connell mentioned Saturday night time. “Though we did not try this, I nonetheless suppose there have been some actual teachable moments after which some actual moments the place we’ll be capable to consider and form of actually have a look at the place we’re at that place as we form of restack every little thing to enter this week to see how we have to enable these guys to compete.
“As a result of as we have talked about, in my thoughts the clock goes. Though I really feel like our starters are in an ideal spot for Sept. 11, and that is the place our emphasis is de facto on, there’s a whole lot of jobs that we’ve got to nonetheless enable to play themselves out so we be ok with the general depth of our workforce, and we’ll definitely enable that in observe this week.”
Mullens began 16 video games for the San Francisco 49ers from 2018 by means of 2020, enjoying in an offense just like the one O’Connell is putting in with the Vikings. He added one begin final season for the Cleveland Browns, however he was behind Derek Carr and Jarrett Stidham on the Raiders’ depth chart this summer time.
The Vikings overhauled their soccer operations this offseason, however new common supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah determined to convey again all three of their 2021 quarterbacks for coaching camp. Cousins signed a contract extension, and Mannion signed a one-year deal. Mond was a third-round decide within the 2021 draft and has not appeared able to take over as a No. 2 quarterback this summer time.
