The Minnesota Vikings are replacing Josh Dobbs with Nick Mullens as the team’s starting quarterback, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport first reported on Tuesday afternoon.
Dobbs had been one of the feel goos stories of the NFL this season. The former Tennessee standout started for the Arizona Cardinals in place of the injured Kyler Murray early in the season before the franchise dealt him to the Minnesota Vikings at the trade deadline.
Despite spending only very brief time with the team, Dobbs led the Vikings to a comeback win over Arizona in his first game. Dobbs wowed his coaches and teammates alike with his ability to play and process information at a high level despite having very limited knowledge of Minnesota’s playbook.
Dobbs once again played well the following week in the Vikings win over New Orleans and was solid a week later in a narrow loss against the Denver Broncos.
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But the former Tennessee standout struggled badly in the Vikings Monday night football loss against the Chicago Bears— throwing four interceptions in 12-10 defeat. When Minnesota’s offense couldn’t get anything going in last week’s game against Las Vegas, the Vikings benched him for Mullens.
Dobbs didn’t turn it over against the Raiders but only threw for 63 yards on 23 attempts and the game was tied 0-0 when Minnesota made the quarterback change in the second half.
In 13 games with both Arizona and Minnesota this season, Dobbs threw for 2,464 yards, 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. The dual-threat quarterback added 421 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns.
Dobbs will now serve as Mullens’ backup for the time being but could step back into the starting role later this season. Mullens is a seven-year NFL veteran who played his college football at Southern Miss.
