NFL notebook: 49ers QB Mullens to start Monday

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Nick Mullens told reporters Tuesday that 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan informed Mullens that he will start Monday's game against the New York Giants. Mullens took first-team reps in practice Tuesday, followed by C.J. Beathard and Tom Savage. Mullens earned the starting job based on his performance in Thursday's victory over the Oakland Raiders, and his ascent to the starting quarterback spot is quite a story. Mullens was signed by the 49ers in 2017 as an undrafted free agent out of Southern Mississippi. He spent the entire 2017 season on the practice squad and was still on the 49ers' practice squad this season before being promoted to the active roster when Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a season-ending knee injury in the third game. Mullens was the backup to C.J. Beathard until Beathard suffered a thumb injury that enabled Mullens to make his NFL debut as the starter against Oakland. Mullens threw for 262 yards with three touchdown passes and no interceptions to guide the 49ers to a 34-3 rout of the Raiders. Shanahan said after that game that he had not decided whether Mullens or Beathard would start against the Giants. --Some Buffalo Bills fans do not seem to be enamored with Nathan Peterman, with one going so far as to set up a GoFundMe page to send the struggling quarterback into retirement. While the GoFundMe page entitled "Nathan Peterman Please Retire" is significantly short of its $1 million goal -- it has raised $60 as of Tuesday morning -- the sentiment is clear. Peterman has started four games since being selected by Buffalo in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft. The 24-year-old has completed 68 of 130 passes with three touchdowns and 12 interceptions in eight career games. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Peterman completed 31 of 49 passes for 189 yards with three interceptions -- including one returned for a touchdown -- in Sunday's 41-9 setback to the Chicago Bears. --Cleveland Browns cornerback E.J. Gaines sustained a concussion and was ruled out for remainder of Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Gaines had just returned from missing the previous two games with a concussion that he sustained in practice. The absence of Gaines is especially troublesome for the Browns, who saw promising rookie Denzel Ward injure his hip during the first quarter of the contest. Ward was checked out in the sideline tent and before he retreated down the tunnel. --Dez Bryant was scheduled to join fellow free-agent wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Kamar Aiken in working out for the New Orleans Saints on Tuesday, multiple media outlets reported. It is not immediately known if the Saints (7-1) are planning to sign one of the wideouts or have them work out for the team should the need arise down the road. --Although Bruce Arians appears content in the CBS broadcast booth, he said there is a head coaching position that could lure him back to the sideline. "Cleveland is the only job I would consider," Arians said in response to the inquiry by Canton Repository's Steve Doerschuk. The Browns fired head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley last week and replaced them on the interim basis with Gregg Williams and Freddie Kitchens. Arians served as the offensive coordinator of the only Browns team to make a postseason appearance since the rebirth of the franchise via expansion in 1999. He was fired by the club after the 2003 season. --Hue Jackson is itching to get back to work. Jackson admitted in a podcast interview with Adam Schefter of ESPN that he would be willing to join another team's staff this season. "Oh absolutely," Jackson said, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "If there's somebody who I know and trust and respect, felt like they needed me to help or to do something for them along the lines of assisting in any way that I can to help them be as good as they can be on gameday, I would do that in a heartbeat." Jackson, who did not divulge if he had received such an offer, was fired as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns last week.