The Josh Dobbs era has begun in Minnesota. And how quickly things change…
Coming into the year, there were some high hopes surrounding the Minnesota Vikings franchise after going 13-4 last season and suffering an early playoff exit at the hands of the New York Giants.
Those hopes quickly morphed into what looked like another disappointing season when the team stumbled out of the gate to a 1-4 record and Justin Jefferson, arguably the best wide receiver in the league, went down with a hamstring injury in a week 5 loss.
But the team then went on a hot streak after discovering the power of Creed, ripping off 3 consecutive wins to bring their record to 4-4 and placing them squarely back in the playoff race.
However, misfortune struck again, as Captain Kirk ruptured his Achilles in the 4th quarter of a 24-10 win against the Green Bay Packers, leaving the team without their best two offensive players and no clear backup QB to take the helm.
Many people (myself included) thought that would be all she wrote for this team and it would be another “What If” season for the Vikings, but things started to look up when they traded for Josh Dobbs, a former Steelers backup that had played pretty well for the Arizona Cardinals while Kyler Murry was making a comeback from a torn ACL.
Despite joining the team that week, Dobbs served as the backup for Jaren Hall, a rookie they drafted in the 5th round, and while it may have always been the plan for Dobbs to take the helm at some point later in the season, he was forced into the game despite not knowing the playbook or his teammates’ names when Hall went down with a concussion early in the game.
What should have been a disaster turned out to be magical, as Dobbs lead the team to victory by way of a last minute game winning drive to seal the deal and turn him into an American hero.
The NFL season moves fast and though people still gave him a ton of credit for what he was able to do, Dobbs had to regroup and get ready to lead the team as the starter against the Saints just a week later. Many people (myself again included) thought this would be a down game as the growing pains of learning a new offense in the course of a few days would take its toll, but yet again, Joshua Dobbs proved himself to be a star in the making.
He threw for 268 yards and a touchdown, ran for another, and guided the streaking Vikings to their 5th straight win to bring their record to 6-4.
Truly, there’s not many words to describe how awesome of a story this is, I mean you can just look at Zach Wilson and the Jets to realize that it takes more than a talented young QB to win games in the National Football league.
To celebrate this remarkable run, Dobbs took to TikTok and got in on the Creed madness that’s been taking over the nation, posting a clip of him scrambling for what seemed like 20 seconds before scampering into the end zone to put the Vikings up 17-3 late in the first half next to a remixed clip of a TikToker singing along to Creed that has made its rounds on the internet more than a few times of late.
Honestly, Dobbs is turning me into sort of a Vikings fan, I mean how can you not root for an astronaut turned NFL QB who barely knows the plays, doesn’t have Justin Jefferson to throw to, and has the Vikings poised to make a playoff run?
Big shoutout to Josh Dobbs. Makes me think my Steelers might have wanted to keep him around for a bit longer…
@joshdobbs CAN YOU TAKE ME HIGHER? #duet with @MaceAhWindu #joshdobbs @Vikings ♬ original sound – Josh Dobbs
