3 Cleveland Browns with stocks rising as they prepare for Green Bay
By John Suchan
Cleveland Browns player No. 3 with rising stock: Nick Mullens
Nick Mullens played as the starter Monday against the Raiders and did a good job, especially in the second half, where he led the offense twice on touchdown drives. It’s a very rare occurrence for the Browns to score in the fourth quarter of late, so it was a pleasant surprise to watch.
If only Mullens could have helped the team more in the first half, maybe we wouldn’t be talking about the Browns failure on converting a late third-down play at the two-minute warning, that then resulted in the team giving the ball back to the Raiders who then went onto win the game on a last-second field goal.
Mullens is credited with a 7-13 record as a starter now in his career. The debate before, during, and after the game surrounding, Mullens was that he did have experience as being a starter in the NFL and therefore it wasn’t like throwing a rookie or another quarterback with little actual starting experience. Some expected him to light things up. Others expected him to hand the ball off all night to the running backs.
What we got, was a little of both. He finished going 20 for 30 for 147 yards and a touchdown throw. For starting a game on such short notice after both Mayfield and backup quarterback Case Keenum went down with Covid, it was a very respectable performance.
Keenum is the six-million-dollar man as the Browns backup quarterback. Some out there in the social media sphere think that Mullens now deserves a promotion over Keenum. It was only one game so let’s not overreact to the performance.
The Browns had several possessions that were limited to three plays and then punts throughout the contest. He certainly did enough to get another opportunity if it were to present itself, but for now, Mullens is on the rise, and we’ll be talking about that until he throws an interception.