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Josh Dobbs left Kevin O’Connell speechless with his touchdown run. What does his speed do for the Vikings?

dane mizutani, pioneer press
·3 min read

The clip went viral on social media this week, with Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell watching from the sideline, while quarterback Josh Dobbs executed the play call Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.

As soon as he took his drop out of the shotgun, Dobbs stepped up into the pocket as he surveyed the field, then stopped on a dime with nowhere to go with the ball. Simultaneously, O’Connell watched everything unfold, a stoic look on his face as he realized the concept he dialed up was covered.

The play call was wrong. But the 28-year-old journeyman quarterback made it right. In that moment, Dobbs reversed out of the pocket, beat a defender to the edge and scampered into the end zone for a touchdown to electrifying the home crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Meanwhile, on the Vikings sideline, O’Connell literally scratched his head with a look of bewilderment on his face. After shrugging his shoulders in exasperation, he talked into the headset, proclaiming, “I don’t even know what just happened.”

This is the magic of Josh Dobbs. As much as he has proven more than capable of operating from the pocket, his mobility outside it is something that could unlock another dimension for the Vikings’ offense.

Asked about Dobbs this week, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips admitted his speed took everybody by surprise. Though it showed up on tape when Dobbs was with the Arizona Cardinals this season, Phillips emphasized that it felt different seeing it in real time.

“Maybe I underestimated how good of an athlete he was,” Phillips said. “There are not many quarterbacks that pull away from NFL players. Sorry for underestimating him, I guess. I’m happy that he’s faster than I thought.”

Talking about Sunday’s touchdown run, Phillips mentioned how Dobbs hit Saints cornerback Alontae Taylor with a nasty juke move in the open field, making him look silly as he beat him to the outside with relative ease.

“It didn’t look like he could get to the edge,” Phillips said. “He got him to freeze, and that was enough for him to get to the front pylon.”

That was a perfect example of how Dobbs can change the game with his speed. It was a big part of his game growing up in Alpharetta, Ga. He was usually the fastest kid on the field, and he used it do his advantage.

“There are a lot of large individuals on the other side of the football,” Dobbs said. “It’s painful when they hit me, so, for me, it’s more of running not to have to be hit by those guys.”

That mindset has followed Dobbs throughout his career, and now that he’s with the Vikings, it seems like they are going to try to tap into that as much as they can.

“He has a real ability as a runner,” O’Connell said. “I think it comes natural to him.”

The key is finding a way for Dobbs to make a difference with his legs without putting him in too much danger in the process.

“We just have to find that right balance where we are tactically doing it for the right reasons,” O’Connell said. “Not taking that low-hanging fruit of just relying on that to run the football.”

That could be easier said than done considering Dobbs is capable of leaving everybody on the field speechless whenever he takes off.

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