Southern Miss Professional Athletes

Nick Mullens, Jacksonville's Most Reliable Backup

Southern Miss quarterback Nick Mullens had a Week 1 to remember — and Jacksonville made sure he'd be around for Week 2 as well.

Mullens, a practice squad veteran with real starting experience, earned a standard elevation to the Jaguars' active roster ahead of their Week 1 matchup against the Cleveland Browns on September 13. The move added immediate intrigue to Jacksonville's QB depth chart, and Mullens delivered when called upon: with the Jaguars up 34-3 and the game well in hand, starter Trevor Lawrence was pulled and Mullens closed out a dominant 34-10 victory. The cameo was brief, but it was meaningful — the kind of situation a backup quarterback lives for.

What made the moment more notable was what followed. On September 19, Jacksonville elevated Mullens again ahead of Week 2, this time for a game against the Broncos. The Jaguars announced the move on X, confirming both Mullens and linebacker Jalen McLeod would be elevated from the practice squad. Back-to-back standard elevations signal that Jacksonville views Mullens as a legitimate insurance option behind Lawrence — not just a warm body holding a clipboard.

Mullens, who has prior starting experience in the NFL, has made a career of staying ready. His Week 1 appearance — even in a mop-up role — keeps him sharp and visible in a quarterback room that matters.

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Around the League

Two other Golden Eagles had notable early-season moments worth tracking.

Frank Gore, the veteran running back with the Buffalo Bills, was flagged as one of the biggest snap-count winners in Buffalo's Week 1 road victory on September 13. The Bills logged 58 offensive snaps in the win, and Gore's involvement stood out in the post-game snap analysis — a sign that the coaching staff may be leaning on him more than his roster standing might suggest.

Rakeem Nunez-Roches suited up for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their Week 1 home game against the Cincinnati Bengals on September 13, a 33-27 loss for the Bucs. Fellow Southern Miss alum Swayze Bozeman was on the other sideline for Cincinnati in that same contest — a quiet Golden Eagles reunion that ended with Bozeman and the Bengals coming out on top.

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Southern Miss doesn't produce quarterbacks who command the spotlight every week, but Mullens is making a quiet, steady case for himself in Jacksonville. Two elevations in two weeks isn't an accident — it's trust. And for Golden Eagles fans tracking alumni across the league, it's the most compelling story of the early NFL season.

Nick Mullens' NFL life just got a little more complicated — and a little more secure, all within the span of a few days.

The Southern Miss product was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars last week as a direct consequence of the team's trade for Quinn Ewers, a move that reshaped the franchise's quarterback room in one fell swoop. When a high-profile QB arrives via trade, roster math gets brutal fast, and Mullens was the odd man out after Jacksonville cut three quarterbacks on Sunday.

The exit didn't last long. Mullens returned to the Jaguars' practice squad on Monday alongside fellow cut Joey Aguilar, landing back in the organization he knows and keeping his NFL career very much alive heading into the 2026 regular season.

It's a familiar kind of limbo for a quarterback like Mullens — valuable enough to bring back, but now operating a clear rung below Ewers on the depth chart. The practice squad role gives him a foothold: he stays in the building, stays in the system, and remains just one injury or roster move away from being elevated back to the active 53. For a veteran backup who has bounced around the league, that's not nothing. That's the job.

Mullens, who built his college career at Southern Miss before earning multiple NFL stints with teams including the 49ers and Browns, has long served as a dependable emergency option in quarterback rooms across the league. His familiarity with Jacksonville's scheme could be what keeps him relevant in a room that just got a lot more crowded at the top.

Fellow Golden Eagle Tim Jones also remains on the Jaguars' roster as a wide receiver, meaning Southern Miss has two representatives in Jacksonville as the regular season opens — though Mullens, for now, is doing his work off the main stage.

For Golden Eagles fans tracking their alumni across the NFL landscape, the Mullens situation is the headline story of the week: a roster cut that could have signaled the end of a chapter, quickly followed by a lifeline that keeps the story going. In the NFL's final week of roster cuts and practice squad signings, stranger things have happened than a practice squad QB working his way back into the spotlight before Thanksgiving.