For Josh Dobbs, learning the playbook is like rocket science
EAGAN — There are worse things in the world to be associated with than having a degree in rocket science.
New Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Dobbs knows it’s only a matter of time before it gets brought up and laughs about his impressive educational background following him everywhere. It took about seven minutes into his first press conference at TCO Performance Center for it to be mentioned that he majored in aerospace engineering and finished college with a 4.0 grade point average. Even if he might be a little tired of being asked about it, there is some relevance to joining the Vikings when it comes to his capacity for learning and applying knowledge.
Dobbs, who not only has the education but has worked as an intern with NASA in two separate offseasons, has landed (get it?) in a position where he needs to put his big brain to work quickly. He is set to serve as the Vikings’ backup just days after moving all of his furniture into his home in Arizona, where he had been the starting quarterback since Week 1, and could be starting in Minnesota as soon as next week.
“We’re not out there doing engineering equations out there on the field but the study habits for sure, I had to cram for a lot of engineering tests and procrastinated a little bit in college, this is very similar to that,” Dobbs said.
It isn’t even his first pop quiz this year. The former Tennessee quarterback began the year with the Cleveland Browns and then was acquired by the Cardinals on August 24 and started for them on September 10.
“You’re not just studying it to memorize though but to actually go out and execute the plan,” he explained. “There’s two different things: I can tell you something and you can spit it back to me or I can tell you and you have to act on that information. Those are two different ways or processing information, obviously I’ve got to do the second one. Having to process a lot of information because of my trade in school definitely prepared me for situations like this. I wouldn’t say any quarterback is normally preparing to learn an offense and have to go out and play in a week but I have been in these situations.”
In a matter of a few days the 28-year-old journeyman has to focus on both understanding all the full picture of the offense as well as how the Vikings will specifically attack this week’s opponent, the Atlanta Falcons.
“You are half learning the general offense and everything that has been installed since OTAs, obviously that’s a lot of information,” Dobbs said. “But you are learning the necessary information to go out and play on Sunday quickly and at a high level and not be paralyzed by play calls and not thinking about the call…it’s a balancing act…you take in the gameplan and master that and then master the auxiliary information that could come up throughout the game.”
Dobbs is using any data points that he has to help him get up to speed. Earlier this year the Cardinals played against the New York Giants, so he remembered watching the two Giants games against the Vikings from last year that he watched looking for hints about what their crafty defensive coordinator might throw at him. In the process he took away some things about the Vikings’ offense.
“It’s funny, whenever I was playing an opponent I’d turn on some Vikings tape to watch them with the still and with Kirk and how the offense was run to get some ideas and see how a really good offense was going against really good defenses,” Dobbs said. “It’s cool to be on the other side of it in the meeting rooms and seeing the preparation.”
One thing going in any quarterback’s favor when joining the Vikings is working with a former quarterback in Kevin O’Connell. Dobbs said that some of the things he’s learned in the past will translate to O’Connell’s offense and the ex-QB’s understanding of how the position can be learned should accelerate the process.
“I’ve been around similar systems with Kevin [Stefanski] in Cleveland and Drew [Petzing] coming from Cleveland to Arizona but when you have a guy that played quarterback in the NFL and now he’s coaching and calling it then it’s a whole different perspective,” Dobbs said. “I’ve heard he’s a whiz, man. He moves guys around, you see the production from afar and in my short time here — 48 hours maybe? — you see it up close with the details and nuances that go into the offense.”
How long Dobbs gets to study for the test is yet to be seen. He will be the No. 2 behind rookie Jaren Hall this week and then the Vikings will reassess where things stand after their matchup with the Falcons. O’Connell is trying to give him a truncated version where he could handle X number of plays if Hall were to get injured.
“I think the goal as of right now is to get him to a place where the game plan that we’ll have for our offense and then with where he is at by the end of the week, using every moment, every minute we have to get him prepared,” O’Connell said. “He doesn’t need to have the whole call sheet, the whole plan, he just needs to have his plan if he were to go into the football game. Having done some of this stuff before with some guys, I think that is very much possible…. as of right now, I would really like to get Josh ready.”
With the Cardinals, Dobbs’ first three games as a starter were effective for a player who was learning on the fly. In Weeks 1-3, he went 1-2 with the losses coming by four and three points. He managed a 71% completion percentage, 98.1 quarterback rating and added 93 yards on the ground. But as the weeks went on he played a run of strong teams in the 49ers, Seahawks, Bengals, Rams and Ravens and struggled with a sub-60% completion percentage, 73.6 rating and seven turnovers.
With Kyler Murray set to return, the Cardinals elected to roll with him and rookie Clayton Tune the rest of the way, so they were willing to move Dobbs for a late-round pick swap rather than have him sit the bench.
“At this point in my career and journey you aren’t too surprised by anything,” Dobbs said. “I’m going going to proceed with an open mind…my confidence is high, I’ve done it at a high level so I’ll do it again. ”
The most notable moments of Dobbs’ career have come when he’s been caught off guard, including being called upon to play in the final game of the season for the Tennessee Titans last year when the playoffs were on the line after spending the year with Cleveland and Detroit. He kept them in the game until the final drive by completing 20 of 29 passes.
Now the Vikings become his sixth team since being drafted in 2017 and he is taking it on with much more enthusiasm than an engineering test.
“It will be a tremendous story to tell,” Dobbs said. “Mine might have a little more miles on it but it’s part of a beautiful journey.”
