Kurt Warner Shows His Work
Ted Schwerzler
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A former undrafted fan favorite and Super Bowl-winning quarterback weighed in on the Minnesota Vikings’ decision to bench the recently acquired Josh Dobbs. Kurt Warner is not a fan of the move, and rather than just throw that opinion out there, he backed it up with some homework.
Kurt Warner Shows His Work
The 52-year-old Kurt Warner made most of his fame through the exploits experienced with the St. Louis Rams. He won a pair of MVP awards and then saw some solid success with the Arizona Cardinals later in his career. Now watching from the sidelines, Warner is still a student of the game and has plenty to bring to the table when dissecting what happens on a weekly basis.
Going into their bye week, the Minnesota Vikings were coming off an absolutely terrible performance. Josh Dobbs did nothing against the Chicago Bears, and Kevin O’Connell failed to utilize him sensibly. Taking a week off to reassess over the bye, O’Connell decided to go with Dobbs again when coming out against the Las Vegas Raiders. It did not go well.
Rather than give Dobbs another week to work through things going forward, O’Connell decided to pull the plug and transition to Nick Mullens.
Warner took exception to that decision, and rather than just write through it, he put his time where his mouth was. While breaking down the film on YouTube, the longtime veteran talked through where he felt things fell on Dobbs and what could have been attributed to other players.
That’s a fair thought to have, given some realities that have played out in the past two contests on the field. It seemed as though O’Connell deviated from utilizing Dobbs’ mobility against both the Bears and Raiders, which put him in a position where using the lesser arm talent was a must.
Looking at things individually, it’s understandable to see how Warner could put an onus on the pass catchers or specific plays. Despite Dobbs throwing four interceptions against the Bears prior to the bye on Monday night, multiple of them hit the hands of would-be pass catchers. The turnovers didn’t come at a breakneck speed against Las Vegas, but there were drops aplenty.
How the change goes for Minnesota remains to be seen. Mullens hasn’t had an opportunity to show his abilities for quite a while. When he was tabbed as the starter for the San Francisco 49ers, the results were mediocre at best. That could certainly be playing into any implications for Warner, but this is a chance for him to change it.
It won’t be long until we see if Warner was right and the Vikings should have stuck with the status quo. It would also be interesting to see him do a breakdown of whatever the performance from Mullens looks like as a comparison.
Hopefully, Minnesota has gotten it right. Their playoff hopes will undoubtedly hinge on it.
Ted Schwerzler is a blogger from the Twin Cities that is focused on all things Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings. He’s active on Twitter and writes weekly for Twins Daily. As a former college athlete and avid sports fan, covering our pro teams with a passion has always seemed like such a natural outlet.
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