2 min read • December 17, 2021
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4th-year quarterback Nick Mullens has been slated to start Saturday night for the Browns after Baker Mayfield and Case Keenum were added to the Reserve/COVID-19 list this week.
Mullens had been on the Browns' practice squad all season until today, when he was added as a COVID-19 replacement.
The quarterbacks are 2 of a reported 20 players to test positive for Cleveland this week, among the hardest hit of the 28 NFL teams with COVID-positive players.
Among those 20 are also: starting offensive linemen Jedrick Wills Jr. and Wyatt Teller, No. 1 wide receiver Jarvis Landry, defensive linemen Malik McDowell, Takkarist McKinley, and Ifeadi Odenigbo, and defensive backs Troy Hill, Ronnie Harrison Jr., Grant Delpit, and John Johnson III.
Also out is head coach Kevin Stefanski, who, along with Mayfield and all vaccinated and asymptomatic players, can return if he posts a negative PCR test in time, as stated in the league's new protocols meant to lubricate player availability.
The NFLPA – whose president is Browns' starting center JC Tretter – is reportedly pushing for the league to postpone some games, including the Raiders-Browns game on Saturday, although the NFL has no plans to do so. Some teams in enhanced protocols, which include the Browns, were attempting to not test vaccinated and asymptomatic players before the NFLPA pushed for tests to continue, according to a statement from Tretter and further reporting from Pro Football Talk and Josina Anderson.
When the game does start, we will see Nick Mullens, who will likely rely on Nick Chubb and De'Ernest Johnson to carry the load. Mullens holds a strange place in NFL history: he threw for the 3rd-most passing yards in the first 16 starts in NFL history. Over those 16 starts for the 49ers from 2018-2020, the Southern Mississippi grad threw for 4,405 yards on 64.1% completion rate with 23 TDs and 21 INTs.
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