New Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs is joining his seventh NFL team — his fifth in the last calendar year. He was living out of a suitcase for about six weeks as the starting quarterback of the Cardinals this season, a stint the 28-year-old Dobbs called a "random" turn after going from Browns backup on Aug. 23 to Arizona starter on Sept. 10.
New Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs is 'not too surprised about anything' as he joins his seventh NFL team
Joshua Dobbs had just moved into a home in Phoenix with his belongings recently delivered from Cleveland when he was traded to Minnesota on Tuesday.
November 3, 2023 at 3:07AM
Dobbs was just getting settled in Phoenix, where he finally moved into a place two weeks ago and only recently received his belongings from Cleveland.
"My stuff got out there last week," Dobbs said Thursday, two days after being dealt to the Vikings at the NFL trade deadline. "I had one week at home with all my stuff — my couch, my bed, had the fam come out because we had a home game last week, so they got to enjoy it and everything. And then got to pick up and move across the country again. It's a part of the process. It'll be a tremendous story to tell."
Dobbs said he'll lean on the eight starts he had for Arizona in Minnesota. He threw for 1,569 yards, eight touchdowns and five interceptions for the 1-7 Cardinals. After Sunday's loss to the Ravens, Arizona head coach Jonathan Gannon said Dobbs would remain the starter. On Monday, Gannon said either Kyler Murray or Clayton Tune — not Dobbs — would start against Cleveland this week. The next day, Dobbs was traded for the third time in his NFL career.
"At this point," Dobbs said, "you're not too surprised about anything happening."
He's arriving in Minnesota confident, having experience in "drastic situations," Dobbs said.
The Vikings needed another veteran option after quarterback Kirk Cousins' season-ending torn Achilles tendon, and uncertainty around backup quarterback Nick Mullens' lower back injury. Quarterback Jaren Hall, the fifth-round rookie, will get his first NFL start on Sunday in Atlanta while Dobbs learns the playbook enough to be a backup for now.
"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 is one thing, and then with where he is at by the end of the week, using every moment, every minute we have to get him prepared, 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," Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell said Wednesday.
Dobbs, who graduated from the University of Tennessee with a 4.0 grade-point average and a degree in aerospace engineering, called O'Connell a "wiz" as a football mind. As Cardinals quarterback, Dobbs said, he'd pick out Vikings games in his opponent's past schedule to review how "a really good offense" would attack them.
"It's really cool now to be on the other side of it," Dobbs said. "Where you're in the meeting rooms, you're seeing the preparation, you're seeing how guys are moving around and getting into those roles to excel."
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
