Josh Dobbs was a world champion a month ago. He was the obvious starting quarterback for the Vikings and one of the greatest storylines in the NFL after amazing performances in victories over the Falcons and Saints.
He has now been dropped to the third-strong position, which means he won’t be able to play in Saturday’s game against the Bengals. Kevin O’Connell of the Vikings revealed on Thursday that rookie quarterback Jaren Hall will be the backup in that contest.
After experiencing a slight regression in a defeat to the Broncos, Dobbs found it extremely difficult to generate any momentum against the Bears and Raiders. In Vegas, he was benched in favor of Nick Mullens, who will start this weekend’s game in Cincinnati. Hall would be next in line in the event that Mullens is harmed or, possibly, just performs terribly.
This is what teams usually do when they bench a quarterback. Zach Wilson was elevated to the position of quarterback by the Jets earlier this season after being benched. The reasoning behind this, I guess, is that a quarterback who has just been benched probably lacks confidence and shouldn’t be counted on to be ready to play in backup duty. They are able to retreat completely in this manner
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Dobbs, who will be wearing Cincinnati gear, might be used as a backup quarterback in the extremely unlikely scenario that both Mullens and Hall sustain injuries. However, it appears quite likely that Dobbs has taken his final snap of the season unless something changes moving forward.
It will be fascinating to see if Mullens can take the job and run with it in the next four games of the regular season, or if Hall, who played two complete drives against the Falcons before suffering a concussion, gets another chance at some point.
