There have been plenty of interesting stories so far this NFL season, but as of late, the biggest story of the National Football League is Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Dobbs.
Dobbs began the year on the Cleveland Browns (they could use him right about now), and right before the season started, he was traded to the Arizona Cardinals to be their temporary starter. After having a so-so start to the year, Dobbs was then shipped to Minnesota after their franchise QB Kirk Cousins went down with an achilles injury and was ruled out for the year.
It seemed as though no one really wanted Josh Dobbs, considering he’s been a part of seven different teams in his seven year NFL career. Now, after two weeks with the Minnesota Vikings, everyone that was in need of a quarterback can’t believe they passed up on the opportunity to have him as a leader on their team.
To be transparent, I’m a Minnesota Vikings fans, and I wasn’t exactly “thrilled” that the team decided to call on the services of Josh Dobbs. I’ve since eaten my words, at least for the first two weeks he’s been on the team, and I would happily continue to eat them if it meant the Vikings continue on their hot streak.
Dobbs clearly has what it takes to be an NFL quarterback, despite spending most of his NFL career as a backup. There’s no doubt that he’s one of the smartest players in the league, considering he has an Aerospace Engineering degree from the University of Tennessee. That intelligence, along with a hilarious picture that was shared by NASA recently, has earned Dobbs the nickname of “The Passtronaut,” and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to stick.
Here’s that picture just for the record:
He’s even getting asked about his aerospace engineering degree in press conferences now, which he is more than happy to talk about. Someone in the media had the idea to ask him about the similarities between football and “rocket science,” and I don’t know what the reporter expected, but the question garnered one of the best presser answers you’ll ever hear:
“There’s definitely some synergy. Obviously, engineering and quarterbacking have a lot of crossover just in the mental aspect of both, right?
When you’re an engineer in school, you show up day one as a freshman and they just throw a ton of problems at you and you’re forced…you’re given equations and you have to critically think of how to solve those problems efficiently (and) repeat the process.”
I love that he said “obviously” to start off his thought process on the comparisons between high-level, advanced engineering and NFL quarterbacking, two things that most people never do or know about, and he’s managed to be respectable at both.
Dobbs joyfully continued talking about how the two concepts that most people would think are lightyears apart are actually quite similar:
“Football is the same way. Show up, defense presents a plethora of difficulties and scenarios and pressures and blitzes and fronts.
They throw all those at you, and as a quarterback, you’ve got to get your team in the right play, (and) critically think of ‘Am I in the right play now?
Or what play do I need to get to to attack this defense and repeat the process?’
Obviously as an engineer, you’re not given a 40 second clock to do that, so things happen a little quicker on the football field.
But that process of having to critically think, problem solve, and then repeat process and applying multiple principles across different situations…(that) does translate between being an engineer and being a quarterback.”
God bless Josh Dobbs.
Two games with the Vikings with two wins so far. We’ll see if the Hollywood story continues when Minnesota plays in primetime this weekend against the Denver Broncos on Sunday Night Football.
If you tune in, plan on hearing the words “rocket science” and “passtronaut” more than you would like to…
