Minnesota will have its fourth starting quarterback of the 2023 NFL season on Saturday when the Vikings square off against the Cincinnati Bengals. Former Spain Park High School star Nick Mullens will be under center for Minnesota, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said on Tuesday, after he sparked the Vikings to a victory on Sunday.

“I do believe Nick Mullens gives us the best chance to win the football game this Saturday,” O’Connell said, “and that’s the decision we made.”

Mullens took over for starter Joshua Dobbs with 9:10 left to play against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. On his first snap of the season, Mullens had a 26-yard completion, but Minnesota punted on that possession. On the Vikings’ next possession, Mullens guided Minnesota on a 56-yard, 13-play drive that ended with Greg Joseph’s 36-yard field goal on the first play after the two-minute warning.

Mullens completed three third-down passes on the series, including a 20-yarder to wide receiver Jordan Addison to the Las Vegas 22-yard line. From there, the Vikings played for the field goal that provided a 3-0 victory over Las Vegas.

Mullens completed 9-of-13 passes for 83 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions against the Raiders.

“Thought he came into the game the other day and demonstrated his ability to prepare and be ready to come in, play in rhythm,” O’Connell said. “Was accurate with the ball, made great decisions. And I think where we are as an offensive right now, it’s about our execution with all 11 guys, and Nick’s comfort in our system, a lot of time on task logged in our offense, will be a bonus for us to continue to hunt improvement coming off of last week and go try to be as efficient as we possibly can.

“It’s been great to see him. He’s healthy now. We’ve been able to help him kind of work through the low-back injury. He feels really, really good. He feels ready to go, which was a huge part of this decision.”

Mullens likely would have started Minnesota’s past five games if not for a back injury that landed him on injured reserve on Oct. 11. While Mullens was sidelined, starting quarterback Kirk Cousins went down for the season with an Achilles tendon injury on Oct. 29.

Fifth-round rookie Jarren Hall stepped in for Cousins. But after 15 snaps in his first start, Hall left to be examined for a concussion. That left Minnesota with Josh Dobbs to play quarterback. Dobbs had started eight games for Arizona this season, but with Kyler Murray on the way back from injured reserve, the Cardinals traded Dobbs to the Vikings on Oct. 31.

Without a single rep in a Minnesota practice, Dobbs completed 20-of-30 passes for 158 yards with two touchdowns – including one with 22 seconds to play — and no interceptions and ran for 66 yards and one touchdown in a 31-28 victory over Atlanta.

After a week of practice, Dobbs completed 23-of-34 passes for 268 yards with one touchdown with no interceptions and ran for 44 yards and one touchdown on eight carries in a 27-19 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Nov. 12.

But Minnesota lost to the Denver Broncos 21-20 and Chicago Bears 12-10 in its next two games and hadn’t scored when Dobbs gave way to Mullens on Sunday. Since the Vikings’ most recent victory, Dobbs has completed 52-of-87 passes for 469 yards with two touchdowns and five interceptions.

Mullens came off injured reserve the day before the loss to Denver, and O’Connell said Mullens looked healthy again on Sunday.

“Getting to see Nick get a little bit more work last week,” O’Connell said, “and then, obviously, go out there and execute our offense in rhythm at a really high level, and the understanding, kind of running the show, the feel of what our offense felt like with him in there in some of those big-time throws on third down, putting his back foot in the ground and giving our guys a chance to make a play, I think it was all positive to see in a game we could still find a way to win despite our struggles for a lot of the day.”

Saturday’s game will be Mullens’ 18th start since he entered the NFL in 2017 and his first since Dec. 20, 2021.

At Spain Park in Hoover, Mullens won the Gatorade Alabama Football Player of the Year Award for the 2012 season, when he threw for 3,649 yards and 40 touchdowns.

At Southern Miss, Mullens set records for career, single-season and single-game passing yards and career, single-season and single-game touchdown passes. Mullens won Conference USA’s Offensive Player of the Year Award for the 2015 season.

As an undrafted rookie, Mullens spent 2017 on the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad. Over the next three seasons, Mullens started 16 games when Jimmy Garoppolo was sidelined by injuries.

The 49ers started the 2018 season with Garoppolo at quarterback, but he suffered a season-ending injury in the third game. When Garoppolo’s replacement, C.J. Beathard, came up with a sore wrist, San Francisco put Mullens in the lineup, and he started the remainder of the season.

After he became the third player in NFL history with at least 250 passing yards and three touchdown passes without an interception in his NFL debut in a 34-3 victory over the Raiders on Nov. 1, 2018, Mullens completed 176-of-274 passes for 2,277 yards with 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions for a 90.8 passer rating. San Francisco had a 3-5 record with Mullens at quarterback after going 1-7 in its first eight games in 2018.

In 2019, Garoppolo started every game for San Francisco, which won the NFC championship and played in Super Bowl LIV. Mullens took seven snaps and didn’t throw a pass in 2019.

In 2020, Mullens again started eight games in place of Garoppolo. Mullens completed 211-of-326 passes for 2,437 yards with 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

Mullens’ 2020 season ended prematurely when he sustained an elbow injury in San Francisco’s 14th game. The 49ers did not re-sign Mullens, and he joined the Philadelphia Eagles as a free agent in the offseason.

The Cleveland Browns signed Mullens on Sept. 1, 2021, after he had been released by the Eagles. With Baker Mayfield and Case Keenum on reserve/COVID-19, Mullens started his only game of 2021 in a 16-14 loss to Las Vegas, when he completed 20-of-30 passes for 147 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.

Mullens signed as a free agent with the Raiders on April 4, 2022, and Las Vegas traded him to Minnesota on Aug. 22, 2022.

After throwing 25 passes for the Vikings in 2022, Mullens signed a two-year contract extension on March 15 to stay with Minnesota rather than enter free agency.

Mullens has completed 437-of-668 passes for 5,168 yards with 27 touchdowns and 23 interceptions in 25 games, including 17 starts. Only eight quarterbacks in NFL history had more passing yards after their first 17 starts than Mullens.

“There’s a reason we went out and got Nick when we did to really solidify that position,” O’Connell said. “Any time you’re going out to try to find a quarterback that you feel like when he’s one snap away can win you some football games, you look for certain traits. Nick has them all. Love everything about his preparation. He allows us to prepare with a plan and doesn’t need a whole lot of reps to then go in and execute that plan.”

The Vikings and Bengals meet at noon CST Saturday at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati. NFL Network will televise the game.

At 7-6, Minnesota is sitting in a playoff position in the NFC with four weeks left in the regular season. The Bengals also have a 7-6 record, but that mark doesn’t have Cincinnati in the projected playoff field in the AFC this week.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.