Coming out of the University of Tennessee as quite the accomplished college quarterback, Joshua Dobbs was excited to come to the Pittsburgh Steelers and work under future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger.
It was quite an eye-opening experience for Dobbs though, as says he went from having a ton of structure offensively in college to very little in Pittsburgh due to Roethlisberger.
In an appearance on the “The Victory Degree” podcast, Dobbs recalled his time in Pittsburgh and stated that while he learned a great deal under Roethlisberger, he had to teach himself some stuff due to the structure offensively — or lack thereof — during that time in the Black and Gold.
“My experience in Pittsburgh was very unique. When you have a quarterback like Big Ben, and the amount of control and command that he has of the offense when he is been playing the same system for 15 years is different from when you have a quarterback that you draft and you need ’em to play day one,” Dobbs said of his time in Pittsburgh, according to audio via the show’s podcast page. “I think like the time and attention that you get as a young guy is completely different in those circumstances. So, like with Big Ben, it’s a lot of on-the-job learning.
“Honestly, there wasn’t a ton of structure in our offense, ’cause Big Ben…he didn’t play with a ton of structure. He loved making audibles, he was in complete control of the system. Shoot, he was calling plays on the field a lot.”
It shouldn’t be at all surprising or shocking that Dobbs says Roethlisberger didn’t play with much structure and that there wasn’t much structure during his time in Pittsburgh on that side of the football, at least at the quarterback position.
A fourth-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, Dobbs came in as the No. 3 quarterback behind Roethlisberger and Landry Jones and largely had to fend for himself.
Dobbs was able to teach himself some things at the NFL level, and was also able to learn from Roethlisberger, praising the all-time great throughout for his play-style and teaching Dobbs some things, while also incorporating things from Roethlisberger’s game into his own.
During his time in Pittsburgh, Dobbs was a key sideline presence for Roethlisberger, who would go to Dobbs to see what the young quarterback was seeing on the field, often bypassing the backup such as Jones or even Mason Rudolph.
Late in his career, Roethlisberger ad-libbed quite a bit. During the 2020 season, specifically, Roethlisberger would have a great deal of success in the no-huddle, drawing up plays in the dirt and taking advantage of key individual matchups, rather than playing within the structure of the play.
“The coolest thing that I learned from that experience was, alright, this guy’s been playing for 15 years. He has every tool in his tool belt. How can I slowly build my tool belt so that whenever I get my opportunity I can have that same field vision and control of an offense and continue to grow from there?” Dobbs said of learning from Roethlisberger. “So yeah, like I had to teach myself a lot of stuff in Pittsburgh, but I also learned a ton from a guy like Big Ben and like a ton of stuff that I used last year just from in-game checks to a lot of stuff in just the preparation leading up in the week.
“He was really good with his cadence. I learned a lot of really good things from him on that. There’s a ton of stuff I took from his game and I enjoyed that experience.”
Dobbs certainly must have learned something during his time in Pittsburgh under Roethlisberger because once he got an opportunity in 2023 as a starter — first in Arizona and then in Minnesota — Dobbs had some success, being a legitimate storyline throughout the season as the “Passtronaut” took off, becoming a viral sensation.
That success Dobbs had in 2023 made Roethlisberger quite proud, getting an opportunity to watch his former teammate take advantage of the opportunity and run with it.
