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- [00:00]
Sports Announcer
Here it is. This corner kick could be a big one. There's the cross, he rises to meet
- [00:06]
Alec Lewis
it and it's a car.
- [00:11]
Sports Announcer
Soccer's biggest tournament is here and Enterprise is turning every corner kick goal into your chance to win a car. The moment a corner kick is called, post on X with one sweepstakes and tag Enterprise. If it's a corner kick goal, you could win. Winners may pick up their cars at an Enterprise or an Enterprise car sales location on a corner near them. With over 1000 corner kicks expected, that's a lot of chances to win. For more details and an additional chance to win, visit ONER.com no purchase necessary. For legal residents of the 50 US states in DC, Puerto Rico, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain who are 21 and older. Sweepstakes ends July 19, 2026. Void where prohibited Prize awarded if a corner kick goal is scored. For entry details and official rules, visit one Jason I'm Jason Concepcion and welcome
- [01:01]
Tiffany Oshinsky
to six Trophies Podcast hosted by myself and four time New York Times bestselling author Shea Serrano. Each week Shay and I are finding the best of the NBA storylines and then handing out six pop culture themed trophies for six basketball related activities. Listen to six Trophies with Jason Concepcion and Chase Serrano on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:25]
Josh Dobbs
What's up y'?
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Play-by-Play Commentator
All?
- [01:26]
Josh Dobbs
I'm Josh Dobbs, honored to be in Minnesota. Introduce myself to everyone. Tremendous game like team effort. I know. Obviously the circumstance I was put in was a little abnormal for a Sunday in the NFL.
- [01:40]
Tiffany Oshinsky
That is the voice of Vikings quarterback Josh Dobbs moments after he engineered one of the most stunning wins of this NFL season.
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Play-by-Play Commentator
3rd and 4 time catch Brandon Powell tucks down Vikings and they have the lead. How about Joshua Dobbs?
- [02:04]
Tiffany Oshinsky
Dobbs pulled off that early November win just five days after joining his new team, meaning he had almost no time to learn the Vikings complicated offense, but as the Athletics Alec Lewis explains today, those who know Dobbs best were not surprised.
- [02:22]
Alec Lewis
Brian Russell, the academic advisor who worked with Josh and his mom Stephanie, he essentially viewed Josh as like a CEO type figure. He said it was like you were dealing with the CEO of a multi billion dollar company.
- [02:35]
Tiffany Oshinsky
Today we dive into the Josh Dobbs story and after a disastrous performance on Monday night, where does Dobbs Story go from here? From Wondery, I'm Tiffany OSHINSKY, It's Friday, December 1st and this is the. Alec Lewis. Welcome to the Lead.
- [02:57]
Alec Lewis
Thank you guys for having me. I'm excited to talk about a story that really popped up out of nowhere, honestly, for me. So I'm excited about it.
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Tiffany Oshinsky
I'm very excited too. And you know, this is a perfect segue because we're going to look at this pretty unusual football odyssey of Josh Dobbs, who's a literal rocket scientist, and why he was so well prepared for some of the most challenging football circumstances you could imagine. But before we dive into his story, I'm just wondering, have you ever come across a story quite like Josh Dobbs or a person quite like Josh Dobbs?
- [03:31]
Alec Lewis
Absolutely not. And the reality is I wasn't sure much about him at all from the get go after he did what he did in Atlanta and then followed it up the week after against New Orleans. I was just curious, where does this guy come from and how has he been able to do what he has done? And so for me, the job was reach out to anybody and everybody who has been around him. And it was a 20 person conversation whirlwind in a span of like three days. And I learned more about a guy I never knew, probably quicker than I ever have in my life. And it was fascinating. It was a blast. And it's really one of those moments where you're grateful that you have the job to be able to learn about people and learn what makes them tick.
- [04:14]
Tiffany Oshinsky
All right, well, let's get into this remarkable journey that Josh Dobbs has been on. Alec, you wrote about his background and his early years growing up near Atlanta. Tell us what you learned there.
- [04:28]
Alec Lewis
Yeah. So his parents, Stephanie and Robert, were very intentional in how they raised him. And that began when he was very young. I mean, something that Stephanie said is we wanted to really pour gasoline on whatever passion that Josh had.
- [04:42]
Stephanie Dobbs
The world is yours to choose. What do you want to choose? Be able to do that. You need to know what's available. And so it just became a. All right, well, hey, this is. This will be our fun adventure.
- [04:56]
Alec Lewis
Their perspective was the world is yours and you can do anything. You can choose. But for Josh specifically, you have to know what to choose. And Stephanie and Robert wanted Josh to know what was out there. And that was part of the reason that they started to go on trips and they would take him to a different college once a year because they prioritize education.
- [05:16]
Josh Dobbs
I was really good at math and science. My parents gave me the opportunities to learn about different passions I had. So one of the opportunities we did as a kid, I came actually down to K Space center when I was 7. We got a chance to tour the Space Center.
- [05:28]
Alec Lewis
It was part of the reason why they wanted him to play sports throughout his upbringing as a youth, they wanted to expose him to music, to social avenues, to chess. I mean, Stephanie Dobbs loves playing chess, and it's something that Josh saw his mom doing and was fascinated by.
- [05:46]
Stephanie Dobbs
And I never would let him win. He had to learn to beat. You know, he eventually did, but he was never given a game of chess from early on.
- [05:56]
Alec Lewis
So they would play chess and she would win over and over and over. And. And so really exposing Josh to all of these different avenues was a, an intentional choice, parenting choice that really guides the way that I think Josh views the world and really the passion that he's pursued over time.
- [06:16]
Tiffany Oshinsky
So his parents, as you said, encouraged him to try a lot of different things. And it was clear from your story that this guy had a lot of intellectual curiosity. So along those lines, you had a great anecdote from a college tour that Dobbs took at Tennessee while he was still in high school. Can you take us through what happened?
- [06:36]
Alec Lewis
Yeah. So first, it's probably important to know that Josh would not miss Fridays of class to go on these college tours. As a quarterback recruit, he wanted to have perfect attendance because it goes back to the competitiveness with he and his mom. His mom was a really good high school student, a really present high school student. So one of their competitive avenues was Josh wanting to prove to her that he could overcome her presence in high school. So they would usually leave for these college tours on Friday nights and then attend the tours at these different universities over the weekend. And so Tennessee was very intentional, specifically themselves in terms of they knew what Josh wanted to do, they knew he wanted to pursue a really high level educational path. And so when he got to Tennessee, the staff at Tennessee had set up numerous visits and tours. They had informed Matthew Mitch, who is now the dean of Engineering at Tennessee, that, look, we're going to be bringing around this recruit and you're going to come meet him. Never met this guy before. And he said, you know, he's coming up in the summer, he's going to take some math courses. They were meeting, greeting and schmoozing and kind of getting to know Josh and Matt Minch. Right before they were to take this picture together, Matt asked him, josh, what math class have you taken? And he says, differential Equations, which is the last math you have to take as an engineer. Differential equations, which, I mean me personally, I don't even know what that is. But Differential equations is a math above calculus 1, calculus to matrix algebra. And Matt, Mitch turned to him as if to say what? And then the picture was taken, right Then this is impossible. How can you take six other math classes before you even get here? And so Matt, Mitch still has a picture in his office of his face kind of aghast of like, how could a high school kid have taken differential equations? And he was really just engrossed in who Josh Dobbs could become from that time on.
- [08:38]
Tiffany Oshinsky
So Dobbs arrived at Tennessee and as you wrote, he decided to study aerospace engineering while also playing football. How did that come about?
- [08:49]
Alec Lewis
Yeah, so Josh's love of aerospace in general and aviation goes back to the trips that he would take with his family as a youth. Josh would sit in the airport and his mom, Stephanie told me this. He would sit in the airport and he would watch the airplanes fly. He would stand at the window and just watch them take off and land
- [09:10]
Stephanie Dobbs
long before TSA and all the need to be at the airport three hours before the check in. We've been there all through his, you know, growing up of his insistence that we have enough time to just sit and let him watch the airplanes.
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Alec Lewis
Just bright eyed, just fascinated by how something so big could leave the ground and how it could transport people. And he would upper his parents with questions of how is this possible?
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Stephanie Dobbs
And so that just expanded to him, you know, wanting to know everything about airplanes and the science behind it. You know, he could look up and see a plane flying and tell you what size plane or who the manufacturer was.
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Alec Lewis
Over time, as he in high school became so adept at math, the bridge of his love of flight, his love of aviation and his love of math, just perfectly married to a major and a degree in aerospace engineering.
- [10:08]
Tiffany Oshinsky
So how did Dobbs handle everything on his schedule between football and academics?
- [10:13]
Alec Lewis
Right before he committed to Tennessee, he and his mom and an academic advisor that worked with the football program named Brian Russell sat in a room and they charted out his entire schedule from the time he stepped in at freshman year to the time he graduated senior year. So the engineering degree, the aerospace engineering degree at Tennessee is a five year program. He wanted to graduate in four years. Josh's day, I mean there was no time wasted, ever. He would wake up at 6:30 in the morning. He would attend class from like 8am to 2pm Then he would practice and watch film from 2:30pm to 7pm Then he would finish his homework in the academic building from 7:30 to 10. And if need be, if there was extra work, he would make time before that, 6:30 in the morning or after that 10:00pm and that intentionality behind how he would accomplish the schedule just continued from that time forward.
- [11:08]
Tiffany Oshinsky
And speaking of Dobbs preparation and attention to detail, can you tell us the story of how it went for Dobbs trying to learn the playbook at Tennessee?
- [11:18]
Alec Lewis
Yeah. So Anton Davis was a football staffer at Tennessee, kind of in a support role. So he met Josh early on. He saw Josh sitting outside the quarterback room in the football offices, and Anton saw Josh and the playbook was just like sprawled out next to him. And Anton was like, you know what? I'm going to mess with them.
- [11:37]
Anton Davis
And I said, hey, rookie, you know you about to learn those plays yet. And it's day two, right? And I'm expecting them to say, man, my head's spinning, you know, I'm ready for my fire hose.
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Alec Lewis
And he said that Josh looked at him point blank without any laugh, without any chuckle.
- [11:51]
Anton Davis
This dude looks at me, says, yes, sir, I know all the concepts. I know everything they're trying to do. I was like, okay. He literally did tell me that. I'll never forget it because I thought I was going to catch him off guard. He's like, I already know everything they're trying to do.
- [12:04]
Alec Lewis
And Anton Davis response, he kind of like took a couple steps back and walked back his office and was like, okay, all right. And that's never happened before. So he was blown away by Josh's response. And he's become known in recent time, obviously, for being able to master playbook quickly. I mean, this is something he's done from the time he was 18 years old
- [12:27]
Tiffany Oshinsky
and Alec, long before he arrived in the NFL. You actually wrote about an example of Dobbs being thrown into the fire and being ready for the moment during that first year in college. Can you take us back to that day in 2013 and remind us what went down?
- [12:41]
Alec Lewis
So October 2013, Josh is a freshman at Tennessee. They're playing Alabama, which is the number one team in the country, at Brian Denny Stadium, which is not an easy place to play for anybody.
- [12:53]
Play-by-Play Commentator
This will be Christian Jones this year. He has one of 100 yards and he's on the loose now.
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Alec Lewis
It is loud, it is raucous. There are 100,000 people bearing down on you from three different levels. And so Justin Worley was at the time the starting quarterback for Tennessee. He suffers a thumb injury.
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Play-by-Play Commentator
Justin Worley's thumb is still being evaluated. So freshman Josh Jobs will have the ball.
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Tiffany Oshinsky
This will be his first start. This will be his first game action since high school.
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Alec Lewis
And what it so now you have this freshman being thrust in to an atmosphere that is raucous against the best team in the country. And Josh held his own that day.
- [13:36]
Play-by-Play Commentator
Dobbs goes back. Oh, wide open. Same play.
- [13:39]
Alec Lewis
They ran the opposite direction early in the game.
- [13:42]
Play-by-Play Commentator
Marquez north fights off the first tackle from Cyrus Jones.
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Alec Lewis
He's thrust in the fire without any expectation that he would be in that environment. And he performed. And really the funniest part of it is as Josh is thrown out on the field. Cbs, who's broadcasting the game, had gotten this anecdote, I guess, from one of the coaches or one of the players.
- [14:04]
Play-by-Play Commentator
He is majoring in aeronautical engineering and a very bright young man. I remember one of the stories we heard about the trip back after they got hammered 5,914 at Oregon. There was one light on in that all night trip, and it was Josh Dobbs studying for his aeronautics.
- [14:21]
Alec Lewis
Josh Dobbs scrolling through his engineering textbook, which just shows the needle that he was trying to thread from the very beginning to try to balance these two worlds.
- [14:31]
Tiffany Oshinsky
Well, Josh Dobbs went on to have an impressive career at Tennessee, leading the Volunteers to nine and four records his last two seasons and setting a number of school records along the way. But it sounds like it may have been even more impressive what he accomplished off the football field. What did you learn about that?
- [14:50]
Alec Lewis
Yeah, so they played a game late in Josh's college career and the buses were ready to leave, players were on the bus, the coaches were on the bus. But there was one person who wasn't on the bus, and it was Josh Dobbs. And the coaches were like, where is our quarterback? We need our court. They couldn't find him. And behind the scenes, Josh was actually spending time with a young girl who had alopecia. Josh specifically had received messages from this girl. He had been a shining light for her in the fact that he really brought attention and awareness to alopecia and what people who have it really have to overcome.
- [15:26]
Josh Dobbs
So I was first diagnosed when I was eight, you know, in the third grade actually. So at that time, we started the typical treatments. There were topical creams, cortisone shots, and, you know, my hair grew back. And then from there, once I got to high school, my hair became patchy again. My hairline began to recede. And actually by the end of high school, I lost all my eyebrows and eyelashes.
- [15:47]
Alec Lewis
And so Josh ended up meeting with this young girl. It had been a meeting that had been set up by Anton Davis. And before the meeting with her, Anton told Josh, you don't have to spend a ton of time.
- [15:59]
Anton Davis
She just wanted to See Josh, take a picture with Josh and, you know, get to meet him. And that was it, right? And I told Josh, I was like, you know, you spend five minutes and will be good.
- [16:08]
Alec Lewis
Spend time with this young girl she'll remember for the rest of her life. And then you got to go get on the bus. In about 30 minutes later, Anton Davis checks in as if to say, Josh, like, you kind of have to go. Josh waves him off. She wore a wig. And they've talked about just what Josh has had to overcome. She ends up taking her off her wig. They're laughing, they're joking. Josh is having a ball with this young girl.
- [16:29]
Anton Davis
He sat there no less than 30 minutes. I feel like he sat there longer, maybe close to 45 minutes, just talking and interacting with this little kid, giving her confidence, making her feel good about the condition that she had.
- [16:42]
Alec Lewis
Meanwhile, the coaches on the bus are like, freaking out. Like, our quarterback isn't here. This is Josh Dobbs. He doesn't miss anything. Where is he? And ultimately, Josh is just making this girl's day.
- [16:52]
Anton Davis
You know, he did not rush it, and the buses waited for him. And I thought that was a real. That's one of the coolest moments I saw because it was a time when he didn't have time, and he took time and made time for the little kid.
- [17:04]
Alec Lewis
And so the impressiveness and the way with which Josh operated just kind of blew everybody away.
- [17:11]
Tiffany Oshinsky
Coming up, the moment Josh Stobbs became a household name and the moment on Monday night, it may have all come crashing down.
- [17:24]
Alec Lewis
What does it take to go racing in the fastest cars in the world? Oscar Piastri.
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Josh Dobbs
Your head's trying to get roofed one
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Alec Lewis
way, your body's trying to go another role. It's very extreme in the sense of how close you're racing. Wheel to wheel. We've been given unprecedented access to two of the most famous names in Formula One, McLaren and Aston Martin. I'm Landon Arts. They build a beautiful bit of machinery
- [17:44]
Tiffany Oshinsky
that I get to then go and have fun in.
- [17:46]
Alec Lewis
They open the doors to their factories as the 2024 season reached its peak. I'm Josh Hartnett. This is F1 back at base. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.
- [18:02]
Tiffany Oshinsky
So, Alec, after college, Josh Dobbs was selected in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. And that was the start of a pretty turbulent NFL journey. Can you tell us about some of the stops he made leading up to his time with the Vikings?
- [18:17]
Alec Lewis
Yeah, you mentioned it, Tiffany, but Josh was drafted in 2017 in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Steelers organization that prioritized backup quarterbacks. They had Ben Roethlisberger, who was a potential hall of Famer and will be a Hall of Famer. And in drafting Josh, they knew that he would probably be sitting for a while behind Ben Roethlisberger. And so he did from 2017 to 2019. The offensive coordinator at the time, Randy Fichner, told me that he would give Josh Dobbs projects like at the beginning of every week, study this two point conversion package, study away to be able to navigate red zone opportunities. And Josh would come back and hand them a packet of information and really ask, what can I do for you next? So they would have him essentially as like a graduate assistant, as a research project manager. That was Josh Jobs behind the scenes in Pittsburgh and they ultimately traded him to Jacksonville and that set him up for an odyssey around the league. He returned to Pittsburgh from 2020 to 2021. Then he bounced around to Cleveland, to Detroit, having his apartment in Detroit, but living out of a suitcase in Tennessee to play the final two games of the season for Tennessee. He was bouncing around from building to building, living in different places and, and that's what led him to Cleveland, Arizona and then ultimately Minnesota.
- [19:39]
Tiffany Oshinsky
Well, it continued to be a whirlwind this season for Josh Dobbs at those last two stops you mentioned with the Cardinals and Vikings. So for anyone who doesn't know, can you tell us about the events that led him from Arizona to Minnesota?
- [19:52]
Alec Lewis
So Josh ends up in Arizona where he, he is thrust into a starting spot. And this is the first time at any time in the NFL. Josh's skill set is being exacerbated by the situation around him. Now granted, now Josh is in Arizona with a week to prepare for the first game of the season. So he is immersed in the playbook. He plays for eight weeks of the season for Arizona. He showed some really good flashes.
- [20:18]
Play-by-Play Commentator
Third down and goal fake to Connor Dobbs retreats and floats for the end zone, hits Brown, hits a touchdown.
- [20:26]
Alec Lewis
They played the Dallas Cowboys, America's team, and they beat Dallas.
- [20:31]
Josh Dobbs
It's really cool, man.
- [20:32]
Alec Lewis
I would say my first start was
- [20:34]
Josh Dobbs
against the Dallas Cowboys. So little full circle moment.
- [20:37]
Alec Lewis
It's been a long time to get,
- [20:38]
Josh Dobbs
get to right here, but, but I'm
- [20:39]
Alec Lewis
just proud of the team the way we fight. Week eight, Arizona played Baltimore. And after that game, the coaching staff told Josh Dobbs, Kyler Murray, our original starting quarterback, is coming back, but you're going to be our starter in week nine against Cleveland. Then Monday, Josh goes into the facility and Arizona's coaching staff tells him that he's being benched. And Josh is like, what? And he calls his agent, Mike McCartney, and Mike hears the news and he's like, well, you're getting traded the next day. Tuesday is the trade deadline. Minnesota the week before had lost its quarterback. Kirk Cousins has suffered an Achilles injury. So Minnesota needed a quarterback. They ultimately acquired Josh Dobbs for a late round pick. Trying to replace Kirk Cousins, they go out and they trade for Joshua Dobbs. Kevin o' Connell says he's not going to start this week against Atlanta, but maybe down the road. The Vikings have enters the building on
- [21:34]
Josh Dobbs
Tuesday evening, just, you know, kind of uprooting, you know, moving across the country, especially twice in the last four months. But, you know, sometimes it's just part of your journey. And so I'm excited to be here, excited to get to know everyone, get the offense under my guard as quickly as possible and help out this team win however I can.
- [21:51]
Alec Lewis
He now has to learn an entirely new playbook, just as he had nine weeks prior when he stepped in the building in Arizona.
- [21:57]
Tiffany Oshinsky
That brings us to the moment that Dobbs really put himself on the map in Week 9 against the Falcons, just five days after he was traded to the Vikings. Can you help us relive what happened?
- [22:09]
Alec Lewis
Josh Dobbs against Atlanta. In the lead up to the week, Josh Dobbs did not take one rep in practice. He did not throw one past any of the starting receivers. He barely knew anybody's name in the building. Nobody's expecting him to play in the game. The starting quarterback is the rookie, Jaren Hall. So Josh Dobbs is preparing in the event of an emergency situation. And then in the second drive of the game, Jaren hall, the team's starting quarterback, scrambles toward the pylon.
- [22:37]
Play-by-Play Commentator
Jaren hall is going to run and be kept out of the end zone. A big hit from Jeff Okuda, and Hall is hurting.
- [22:48]
Alec Lewis
It's a concussion. He has to be ushered off the field. Jaren Valdez. And now you see Josh Dobbs rise from his seat on the bench.
- [22:55]
Play-by-Play Commentator
And there's Joshua Dobbs, acquired Tuesday from Arizona.
- [23:01]
Alec Lewis
And the emergency situation is here. It's a wild situation because in the NFL, the coach can speak to the quarterback until the 15 second mark of the play clock. So Kevin O', Connell, the Vikings head coach, is essentially walking Josh through the plays before that cutoff point on every single down. And he's telling him, you have this route on this side, you have this route on this side. This is the footwork you need to take to hit this receiver on this side. And he's essentially playing Madden the video game through Josh Dobbs the quarterback. And Josh is able to handle it.
- [23:32]
Play-by-Play Commentator
Dobbs has it, he's throwing. And held out to Madison for the touchdown. Vikings, they are back in this with their backup to their backup.
- [23:43]
Alec Lewis
Josh was flexing, he was spiking the football. It was really an outpouring of emotion from Josh Dobbs of seven years of having to sit and not do the thing that he loves, which is play football.
- [23:54]
Play-by-Play Commentator
He's going to try and outrun the defender. And he gets another first down. Dobbs has a touchdown for the Vikings. He kept it himself.
- [24:03]
Alec Lewis
You saw that throughout that entire performance. In what was a crazy down to the wire win in Atlanta against the
- [24:10]
Play-by-Play Commentator
Falcons, Joshua Dobbs, fifth team in a calendar year, rallies Minnesota and the defense holds on. What a win.
- [24:23]
Tiffany Oshinsky
Well, after his big win over the Falcons, Dobbs led the Vikings to a win over New Orleans in Week 10. But the Vikings have dropped two close games since then, including a really rough loss to the Bears on Monday night. Can you tell us about Dobbs's performance in that game?
- [24:41]
Alec Lewis
So Josh won the game in Atlanta and then followed it up to your exact point in New Orleans. In the second half of the New Orleans game, the Saints defended him a bit differently. They worked pretty hard to take away his best attribute, which is his athleticism, which is his mobility. And Denver, the week after would follow it up. And then Monday night against the Chicago Bears, right before the team's bye week, Josh Dobbs goes out. And in the first pass play of the game, the Vikings take a huge deep shot down the field.
- [25:10]
Play-by-Play Commentator
Well protected, aired out and fight for the ball. Catch is made. And now Addison, Addison comes away with it, but they're gonna say it hit the deck.
- [25:22]
Alec Lewis
Josh Dobbs throws a perfect pass deep to Jordan Addison, and the ball ends up sputtering to the turf. And it's an incomplete pass. And from there, the rhythm of the entire game seemed a bit disjointed.
- [25:34]
Play-by-Play Commentator
Dobbs protected and picked by Jalen Johnson.
- [25:40]
Alec Lewis
Josh Dobbs would try a pass to the left sideline. The ball was intercepted. Then he dropped back later on in the game and fired up all over the middle of the field. And it was tipped, intercepted. There were two more tipped interceptions.
- [25:54]
Play-by-Play Commentator
This one is intercepted by Chicago and Kyler Gordon, and that is four on the night for this Chicago defense. Kevin o', Connell, he can't believe what he's seeing. And, and like I said, Then late
- [26:12]
Alec Lewis
in the game, Kevin OConnell, the Vikings head coach, admitted he was thinking, what would give us a spark. And really one of the answers that came to his head was benching this guy and Josh Dobbs, who for two weeks had injected a sense of belief in this entire really city fan base organization. And so now The Vikings are 6 and 6. Do they want to continue to roll with Josh Dobbs or do they want to operate with one of the other backups and Nick Mullins or Jaren hall, two guys who don't have a lot of proven success either. So the Vikings face a pretty tough decision, and for Josh Dobbs, it's been such a whirlwind. I mean, here you are waiting all this time to get your opportunity. You finally get it in Arizona. You finally move into your house in Arizona in week six, then in week nine, you're traded. Then you dazzle the world. You become really the talk of the NFL. And then a few weeks later, you're potentially going to be back to where you started in terms of wanting another opportunity to prove who you are and what you're capable of.
- [27:15]
Tiffany Oshinsky
What do we know as of right now on whether Dobbs will be the starter? How likely does it seem that he will get benched?
- [27:22]
Alec Lewis
It seems possible. I wouldn't say it seems likely. Josh Dobbs provides something that none of the others provide. His level of athleticism, his ability to wow you, is a skill set that the Vikings are way. His potential inaccuracies or inability to master the time and the rhythm of the offense on such a whim might be the reason that the Vikings ultimately decide to move to another quarterback. So that is what the Vikings are weighing internally. This is a discussion that will occur all week, and then by next week, when they have to decide who's getting the first team reps, they will make the decision. But it is definitely possible, given what happened Monday night, that Josh Dobbs could be bitched A couple weeks after dazzling the NFL.
- [28:09]
Tiffany Oshinsky
And finally, Alec, knowing everything that we know about Josh Dobbs, his intelligence and his resilience, how do you think he ultimately responds to all of this? Where does the Josh Dobbs story go from here?
- [28:24]
Alec Lewis
I can tell you one thing about Josh Dobbs. Regardless of what happens, he is not going to lose confidence in himself. He is not going to lose belief in himself, and he is not going to lose the passion and the drive for this dream of playing football at this level. That's something that has been instilled in him from the time he was very young. The world is yours and you can choose whatever you want to choose. Josh Dobbs has chosen football and so he is going to do whatever he can do to earn another opportunity, whenever that may be. But this is a guy who has proven over years of navigating the worlds that he's navigated that he's gonna give it everything he's got and people around him are gonna gravitate to him, knowing the work that he has put in. I would expect nothing less than Josh Dobbs being able to surprise people because to this point, that's really all he's, all he's done.
- [29:14]
Tiffany Oshinsky
Well, thank you so much for sharing this story, Alec, and excited to see what happens with Josh Dobbs the rest of the way.
- [29:20]
Alec Lewis
It's been fun and it will continue to be.
- [29:24]
Tiffany Oshinsky
You can read Alec Lewis full story about Josh Dobbs and follow all of his coverage of the Vikings@theathletic.com thanks for listening. This week. This episode was produced by Matt Stroup and edited by Anders Kelto. Audio editing by Adrian Tapia. Sound design and mixing by Erin May. Fact checking by Ian Hurley. The rest of our team includes Joe Richardson, Daniel Gonzalez and Matt Beagle. Our executive producer is Anders Kelto. The lead is executive produced by Dave Easton, Marshall Louie and Jen Sargent. For Wondery from Wondery, I'm Tiffany Oshinsky. We'll talk to you next week.