Vikings keep Joshua Dobbs as starting QB as they aim for playoffs

The Minnesota Vikings will have the same player under center when they return from their bye week as they did when they departed for their break.

Joshua Dobbs will remain the Vikings’ starting quarterback when they take on the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 14, head coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters on Wednesday.

Dobbs provided an initial spark to the Vikings after Minnesota traded for him in the wake of Kirk Cousins‘ season-ending Achilles injury. However, Dobbs struggled in the Vikings’ final game before their break, completing 22 of 32 passes for 185 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions in a 12-10 loss to the Bears.

Before the loss to the Bears, Dobbs went 1-1 in his first two starts with the Vikings, but he also led them to a victory over the Falcons in relief in Week 9. In his first three games with the Vikings, he completed 65.6% of his passes for 647 yards, four touchdowns and an interception with a 94.4 passer rating, to go with 131 rushing yards and three rushing scores.

Dobbs’ fourth-quarter win over the Falcons came five days after he was traded to the Vikings from the Cardinals. He began the regular season as the starting quarterback in Arizona, who acquired him from Cleveland in August to be its starting quarterback with Kyler Murray still rehabbing from his ACL tear. Dobbs completed 62.9% of his passes for 1,569 yards, eight touchdowns and five interceptions, with 258 rushing yards and three rushing scores during his time with the Cardinals. But Arizona went 1-7 in the eight games Dobbs started, causing the Cardinals to bench him before Murray was activated.

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The Vikings opted to trade for Dobbs a day after Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon said he’d no longer be the starting quarterback and two days after Cousins tore his Achilles. He wasn’t initially slated to be their starting quarterback, as fifth-round rookie Jaren Hall was tabbed for the role, but Hall suffered a concussion in the game against the Falcons.

O’Connell said he opted to stick with Dobbs over Hall or third-string quarterback Nick Mullens because he’s “confident in him” and he feels his performances in the two wins were deserving of another chance.

“With Josh, it was more of what can I do to continue to help him?” O’Connell said. “I think it’s important that Josh understands that I have that belief in him. We’re not just looking at this like, ‘Hey, you won us a couple games when we were shorthanded and now we’re moving on.’ I believe that Josh deserves the right to feel that belief from myself. I know he feels it from his teammates.”

O’Connell didn’t say though if Dobbs would be starting for the rest of the season.

“Our whole mentality coming out of this bye is about 60 minutes on Sunday, so I really took that mindset with our gameplan,” O’Connell said.

At 6-6, the Vikings currently sit in sixth place in the NFC playoff picture. But they have the seventh-toughest remaining strength of schedule, with two games against the Lions plus matchups against the Packers and Bengals remaining.