49ers teammates ‘pretty confident’ in Nick Mullens before big game vs. Raiders

Nick Mullens might not have been a name most fans recognized before his eye-opening performance in leading the San Francisco 49ers to a 34-3 victory against the Oakland Raiders Thursday night.

However, his teammates believed the former third-string quarterback would handle himself well in his first NFL start.

‘One of the first guys in the building every day, one of the last guys to leave’

They might not have necessarily predicted that he would throw for 262 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, but they liked what they saw in terms of the work he did during a short week of preparation.

“I was pretty confident going into the game, because you’ve got a guy like Nick Mullens who is one of the first guys in the building every day, one of the last guys to leave,” tight end George Kittle, who caught four passes for 108 yards and a touchdown, told Bruce Murray and Mark Dominik on the SiriusXM Blitz. “His head’s in the playbook or watching film every single day. I would say he knows the game plan just as well as Coach (Kyle) Shanahan does.

‘All of his success is completely on him’

“So when you have a guy like that, that knows in and outs and it’s not like you’re putting in a new piece of the machine in. He’s just replacing one. That’s all on Nick, because he’s the guy that put himself in that position and all of his success is completely on him.”

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