Pattersonca65 wrote:CrimsonCrew wrote:zman1 wrote:Matt Maiocco wrote about another niner rookie qb who had a tremendous first game. I was hoping for Montana but it was Nick Mullens. Niners won 34 to 3 and he had 3 td passes. Let's hope Purdy has a better future than that.
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Mullens' problem was the turnovers. He was remarkably effective as a passer, but he couldn't protect the ball. If he had, he would have had a chance to stick around. Not sold on Brock avoiding that pitfall, but we'll see. He's got a better cast than Mullens ever did.
Mullen's problem was more than that. He had a weak arm and could not make certain throws. His arm was one of the big reasons Mullens went undrafted. His effectiveness also dropped substantially when under any sort of pressure as stats have shown.
Sure, I didn't mean to suggest that the ONLY thing holding Mullens back was the turnovers. But I think it was the biggest part of it. Physically, he was fairly similar to Purdy. Small, limited arm, couldn't make all NFL throws especially off-platform. He put up good overall numbers, but he threw 10 INTs over eight games as a rookie and 12 over eight games in his third year, and it sunk him. He also took a lot of sacks (17 in those eight rookie starts, and at least three in five of the final six games; 19 in eight games his third year).
That said, he was incredibly in his first game. He was a little shakier in his second game, but put the team up three with 2:50 left and the D allowed a TD. He then drove the team from our 25 to the Giants' 21 with 53 seconds left and one TO before attempting a desperation toss into the endzone. So he was looking like he might be somebody at that point.
Mullens is probably a good cautionary tale for Purdy at this stage. It could go in a lot of different ways, especially as teams get film on Brock. Let's hope it goes in a positive direction.