The Vikings and Joshua Dobbs Are Taking Back the NFC North One Step at a Time

With a five-game win streak under its belt, Minnesota is slowly shedding the idea that 2023 is a throwaway year, thanks to its recent addition at quarterback.

More from Albert Breer: Takeaways: Patriots’ Dud in Germany Could Change Calculus on Bill Belichick | ​​The 2023 Texans Are No Fluke | Niners Dominant Again After Enduring ‘Sucky Feeling’

The Vikings and Joshua Dobbs took a big step against the Saints on Sunday. And it was a step that, unless you were on the Minnesota sideline (or had Connor Stalions on retainer the last two weeks), you couldn’t have possibly seen.

“Last week, when we were getting ready for the two-minute drill and different plays throughout the game, we were drawing them up on the sideline to make sure I knew them,” Dobbs told me late Sunday afternoon. “It was me asking questions. Literally, K.J. [Osborn] got hit, went down, and the QB coach, Chris [O’Hara], came on the field and he was drawing up a play they wanted to call, on the field, in an injury timeout, just to make sure I was good for it.

“This week, we were able to just play clean football. And not have any of the whiteboards on the sidelines.”

O’Connell is making a strong campaign for Coach of the Year in 2023 :: Brad Rempel/USA TODAY Sports

The Vikings, like Dobbs, took another big step in beating the Saints, 27–19. Now at 6–4 and with five straight wins under their belts, Kevin O’Connell’s tough, resilient and resourceful crew can finally, once and for all, let go of the idea that this was a throwaway year, even after the team shed the veterans it did in the offseason and even with the dead-money cap cleanout still taking place to set up the franchise’s future.

And maybe more than anything else, Dobbs’s story has become an illustration of how this group of Vikings is pulling every lever now to defend the NFC North title it won a year ago, in O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s first season. (They’re a game and a half back of the Lions as it stands.)

The reason that’s becoming more realistic? Well, the disappearance of that whiteboard symbolizes it, and the Vikings should continue to get better as the weather gets colder. Dobbs will get more comfortable. Justin Jefferson will, eventually, return. The younger guys in growing roles, such as Ty Chandler and Jordan Addison, should keep ascending.

And Sunday, with Dobbs in particular, you see these sorts of things happening in-game.

An electric second quarter that separated the Vikings from the Saints is proof of it: In those 15 minutes, Dobbs went 13-of-15 for 168 yards and a touchdown, and he rushed for another 32 yards and a score on four carries. As the offense started to coalesce around him, he went on touchdown drives of 75, 82 and 76 yards, while the defense held New Orleans to 26 yards and a single first down.

“Things definitely did click, man,” Dobbs says. “In the first quarter, first drive to go down, we start hot, we just don’t finish in the red zone. Which happens. Which was fine. Then, we go three-and-out. In the second quarter, my ability to be me but also guys around me to make plays really just showed up. The offense giving me time to be able to click through my progressions and then giving me opportunities and lanes to get out of the pocket was good. Guys were making plays down the field with big catches.

“Obviously, T.J. [Hockenson] had a huge day. Jordan Addison did a great job of being open all day. We have Jalen Nailor getting in there with his first start, gets his first catch. It’s just such a huge next-man-up mentality here where guys are just continuously making plays. And being the guy at the quarterback position, it’s great to have such a great cast around you.”

It showed up for Dobbs on Sunday. It was also there during the week.

---

Week 9 was a fire drill after Kirk Cousins blew out his Achilles. The coaches were scrambling to get rookie Jaren Hall ready to start. Dobbs barely knew where the cafeteria was. So the win over the Falcons was, more than anything else, a test of survival for everyone involved, whiteboards and all.

Week 10 was different. During the Falcons game, the Vikings had to find corners to cut—one was O’Connell talking to Dobbs through the headset all the way down to the 15-second cutoff—to sort of cheat the test the quarterback was faced with, coming in after Hall got hurt. But after that, the six days leading up to the Saints game gave Dobbs and his coaches a legitimate shot to cram. And cram they did.

“The team around the QB position has been tremendous,” Dobbs says. “The room, between Sean Mannion, Nick Mullens, Kirk [Cousins], Jaren, just being able to have a great vibe in that room and be able to ask them questions, has been awesome. And then with Grant [Udinski] and Chris as the QB coaches in the room, the last two weeks, they spent extra time with me, specifically.

“Just the way that they poured into me over this last week and helping me prepare and just making it seamless and easy has been awesome.”

Along the way, getting to throw to Addison and Hockenson, having the linemen hear his cadence and doing all the little things helped position Dobbs to make his first start as a Viking—two months after making his first start as a Cardinal and less than a year after making his first NFL start, as a Titan (he was also a Brown in between).

The one thing Dobbs knew for sure going into Week 10 was he would enjoy the shot he was getting, because all this, as wild as it’s been the last few months, has been a long time coming, especially for a player who spent nearly five full seasons waiting for his first chance to see the field.

• Watch Vikings games live with Fubo: Start a free trial today.

Before getting such a shot with Arizona in September, Dobbs sat in his rental car in the parking lot of the hotel he was staying in, giving himself a moment to appreciate where he was, and promised himself that he’d bask in the sunlight of what he’d worked to get. There wasn’t such a poignant moment this time around, as another opportunity materialized some 1,600 miles away. But make no mistake, his appreciation for it hasn’t waned.

“This journey isn’t always for the faint of heart. I just keep chugging, just gotta keep making the most of opportunities,” Dobbs says. “And Tom Brady always says this: You go out there one time and you don’t show up, man, you might never be put back on that field. So every time I get the opportunity to do what I love, I love it. I try to take advantage of every opportunity [that comes] my way no matter how big or small. And so to be here where I’m at, you asked like throughout time, do I take it all in? I just take it all in each second. I am where my feet are.

“That’s literally what I do every single day. I take it one day at a time, one rep at a time on the field, one meeting at a time in the classroom, and always try to put my best foot forward.”

And as a result, the Vikings can, too.