NFL Player News

Coach Kyle Shanahan said Tuesday that Mullens may need Tommy John surgery to repair the UCL in his right elbow, Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area reports.

Regardless of whether surgery is necessary, the 25-year-old quarterback has already been ruled out for the season, and C.J. Beathard will take over under center. Mullens is still being evaluated, but if he needs Tommy John surgery, there's a chance he may be sidelined to begin the 2021 campaign as well.

Beathard was named the starting quarterback for Saturday's game against the Cardinals, Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com reports.

Nick Mullens will require season-ending elbow surgery, opening the door for Beathard to make his 11th career start and his first of the season. Beathard entered the game in Mullens' place during last week's loss to the Cowboys, and he completed five of seven passes for 100 yards and a touchdown, a stat line that's slightly skewed by a 49-yard hail mary in the fourth quarter. Over 17 career games, Beathard sports a 1-9 record with a 57.8 completion percentage and 6.9 yards per target. He'll take the field without running back Raheem Mostert (ankle) or wideout Deebo Samuel (hamstring), but George Kittle (foot) has a chance to return this week, according to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.

Garoppolo (ankle) was designated to return from injured reserve Tuesday, Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com reports.

Garoppolo will return to practice Tuesday, opening the 21-day evaluation window for his activation from IR. With the 49ers out of the playoff hunt, they weren't expected to bring back Garoppolo this season. However, Nick Mullens (elbow) is done for the season, and practice squad quarterback Josh Johnson is in COVID-19 protocol, leaving C.J. Beathard as the only healthy option for San Francisco. Even with the uncertainty in the quarterback room, coach Kyle Shanahan said he'd be very surprised if Garoppolo plays again this year, according to Wagoner.

Mullens is expected to undergo surgery after sustaining a right elbow surgery in Sunday's 41-33 loss to the Cowboys, Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area reports.

Mullens isn't expected to be available for Saturday's game against the Cardinals, and he would almost certainly be done for the season if he undergoes surgery. Moving forward, C.J. Beathard is in line to be the 49ers' starting quarterback in Week 16, although Jimmy Garoppolo (ankle) will return to practice this week and is eligible to play Saturday. If Mullens' season is over, he'll finish with 2,437 passing yards, 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

Huntley reverted to the Ravens' practice squad Monday, per the NFL's official transaction log.

The Utah product made a junk-time appearance during the Ravens' 40-14 shellacking of the Jaguars, completing two of four pass attempts for seven yards while adding 18 rushing yards over four carries. With Trace McSorley remaining on injured reserve for the rest of the regular season because of a knee injury, Huntley has a strong chance of receiving another backup activation call Week 16 against the Giants.

Coach Doug Pederson said Monday that Hurts will start at Dallas in Week 16, Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports.

The announcement doesn't come as any sort of surprise, given how spectacularly the rookie signal-caller has resurrected Philadelphia's offense in back-to-back starts. Hurts is coming fresh off a close loss to the Cardinals in which he went toe to toe with Kyler Murray, accounting for four total TDs while passing for 338 yards and rushing for another 63 yards. Given the playmaking abilities Hurts has displayed, both through the air and on the ground, he projects as a high-end fantasy option against the Cowboys' exploitable defense Sunday.

Stidham could get playing time over the final two weeks of the regular season, Ryan Hannable of WEEI.com reports.

Bill Belichick never wavered in his commitment to Cam Newton as the starting quarterback while the Patriots were competing for a playoff spot, but the coach sounded a bit more open to the idea of playing Stidham after Sunday's loss to Miami officially ended the team's long shot wild-card bid. In fact, Belichick said "we'll see" when reporters asked him if he'd take a look at Stidham over the final two weeks of the season. The coach has a bit of extra time to make his decision on Week 16's starters, as the Patriots will host the Bills on Monday Night Football.

McCoy completed 19 of 31 pass attempts for 221 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions in Sunday's 20-6 loss to the Browns.

If we were to ever assign a universal benchmark to describe the cutoff for an "acceptable" NFL quarterback stat line, McCoy's final results may serve as the best example. He wasn't bad by any means, but he certainly was not good either. The 34-year-old is a solid veteran backup quarterback that can protect the ball and move the chains on a team with a good running game. Starter Daniel Jones (ankle/hamstring) remains sidelined, but his status for next week's matchup against the Ravens has yet to be determined.

Mayfield completed 27 of 32 pass attempts for 297 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday's 20-6 victory over the Giants.

Mayfield was nearly flawless under the bright lights, missing only six passes and committing zero turnovers. The 25-year-old has been playing out of his mind recently, accounting for nine touchdowns (including one as a rusher) while throwing just one interception and averaging over 300 yards per game over the last four weeks. Those are top-10 fantasy quarterback numbers, and fantasy managers may have to treat the third-year signal caller as such until he cools off. Next week's opponent, the New York Jets, don't pose a huge threat to Mayfield's hot streak, even though the team just picked up its first victory of the season Sunday.

Hurts completed 24 of 44 pass attempts for 338 yards and three touchdowns Sunday against the Cardinals. He also carried 11 times for 63 yards and a touchdown in the 33-26 loss.

Hurts completed just 55 percent of his passes, but seven passes of more than 20 yards helped him pile up an impressive yardage total. He connected with Quez Watkins and Greg Ward (twice) for touchdowns in a big second quarter and later scored his first career rushing touchdown. On that note, Hurts made several plays with his legs and has now generated 169 rushing yards on 29 attempts over his first two starts. Despite his inaccuracy and three fumbles (none lost) on the day, Hurts enjoyed an excellent performance and will surely keep the job heading into next Sunday's matchup with the Cowboys.