QB Josh Dobbs is on the move again. Both from the city he’s playing in to his pecking order on the depth chart. Traded away from the Arizona Cardinals to the Minnesota Vikings last Tuesday, Dobbs entered his first game with Minnesota as the No. 2 behind rookie Jaren Hall. But Hall was knocked out of today’s game with a concussion, sending Dobbs onto the field.
Though unusual circumstances for most quarterbacks, it’s become old hat for Dobbs. Last year, he signed with the Tennessee Titans on December 21. Eight days later, he was named the team’s starter for a Week 17 game matchup against the Dallas Cowboys. Given the situation, he held his own, though Tennessee lost to the Dallas Cowboys 27-13.
Ahead of the 2023 regular season, Dobbs was again dealt. This time, from the Cleveland Browns to the Arizona Cardinals. Despite just getting to Arizona, he was named the team’s Week One starter, in part due to a lack of options (rookie Clayton Tune was the only other viable alternative on the 53) and in part due to his relationship with OC Drew Petzing, who worked with Dobbs in Cleveland.
Dobbs was then sent from the Cardinals to the Vikings for a sixth-round pick. It marks the third time he’s been traded in his career, also being dealt from Pittsburgh to Jacksonville in 2019, and making him one of the most-traded players of all-time. He’s still short of the record, held by RB Eric Dickerson and WR Brandin Cooks, each swapped four times throughout their career.
Arriving in Minnesota, Dobbs told reporters he had just gotten a house in Arizona before he got the call to pack up and catch a plane.
“Two weeks ago, I just moved into a house in Arizona,” he said via local reporter Alec Ausmus. “…My stuff got out there next week. I had one week at home with my couch, my bed, had the fam come out to the game last week because we had a home game. So they got to enjoy it. And then got to pick up and move across the country. It’s part of the process. It’ll be a tremendous story to tell.”
Forever the optimist, he went on to say it’s all part of the “beautiful journey.”
As of this writing, the score in today’s Vikings/Falcons game is just as strange as Dobbs’ career arc. Atlanta currently leads 8-3 midway in the second quarter. So far, Dobbs has thrown just one pass, an incompletion, and also been sacked that resulted in a safety.
UPDATE (2:27 PM): Dobbs has thrown his first touchdown as a Viking, hitting RB Alexander Mattison in the right flat for a short score. Atlanta leads 11-10. Prior to the score, he scrambled out of this sack to pick up a first down.
