Guess Who Just Became the Face of the NFL
There are Patrick Mahomes and Justin Jefferson, perhaps the two faces of the NFL, as both are phenomenal and likable. In recent weeks, the NFL has embraced Taylor Swift, trying to increase a whole demographic’s interest in watching football games. The NFL even changed their X (formerly known as Twitter) profile banner to a picture of her. But she has been replaced by a Viking.
Guess Who Just Became the Face of the NFL
The hottest name in the NFL is Joshua Dobbs, a journeyman backup quarterback whose career just took off. Fitting for someone with the nickname The Passtronaut, a name NASA gave him. He came in like a rocket and exploded, in a good way. Not many expected Dobbs to be this good for the Vikings, replacing Kirk Cousins after his torn Achilles. But he has been effective in the two games on the field and has been fun to watch.
The NFL has seen enough. They trust in Dobbs, as they claim on their X profile. And The Passtronaut himself tweeted about it.
The passer has been fine for his former team, but the Arizona Cardinals traded him away for a bag of chips. And for some reason, Dobbs has been phenomenal since. His ability to quickly learn the playbook on the fly, or just not knowing what he was doing a week ago and still putting up a show, is absolutely sensational.
Dobbs has the tools to be a good NFL quarterback. Not many passers have his speed and athleticism paired with a solid NFL-caliber arm. His arm strength, his touch, and his accuracy are all better than expected. From a skills perspective, there isn’t any reason to think Dobbs will suddenly start to look like a backup, at least not for multiple games.
It might be time to acknowledge that Dobbs is just a good QB instead of viewing him as a backup. What makes him fun to watch is his ability to play backyard football. He can sit in the pocket and throw to open receivers, but the exciting thing is when there isn’t anyone open, he just takes off. Scrambling in the pocket, running around the edge, and just using his legs to gain some yardage is something Vikings fans have missed.
While Kirk Cousins has been a decent quarterback for the purple team and has shown his electric arm many times, he can’t provide that type of playmaking. For once, he isn’t that fast, but he also doesn’t have that Favre-like backyard football gene. Well, Dobbs does. That is why he is fine even when a play breaks down or doesn’t know the play or the route perfectly.
Through two games, Dobbs has gained 110 yards rushing and scored twice after using his legs, in addition to throwing countless passes after using his legs and escaping pressure. Not Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, or Patrick Mahomes — only Lamar Jackson has more rushing yards among quarterbacks in the NFL.
But he also threw for more than 400 yards and three touchdowns and has yet to throw an interception in a Vikings jersey. He’s also doing that without Justin Jefferson, who is still recovering from his hamstring injury.
It took Dobbs less than two weeks to become a fan favorite in Minnesota, and he is quickly becoming a household name. Not just winning games but winning them with fantastic highlight plays is how a player gets attention, and if he continues to play this way, he will have many suitors in free agency, perhaps even the Vikings.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and Classic rock is his music genre of choice. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt
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