Joshua Dobbs spent the 2023 season quickly adapting to various NFL offenses. Now, he hopes this experience will help him learn and excel in coach Kyle Shanahan’s complex offense with the San Francisco 49ers and secure the backup quarterback role behind Brock Purdy.
Dobbs’ 2023 season was hectic. He signed with Cleveland in March but was traded to Arizona less than three weeks before the season started. Dobbs immediately became the Week 1 starter but was traded again before the trade deadline, this time to Minnesota.
After arriving in Minnesota, Dobbs came off the bench to lead the Vikings to a win despite not knowing his new teammates well. He ended up starting 12 games, a significant increase compared to the two games he started in his previous five seasons, proving himself as a capable NFL quarterback.
“It was crazy. I think crazy is the simplest term to define it,” Dobbs said Wednesday. “It seemed like every time you kind of got settled, it was like, ‘OK, let’s go learn a new offense, learn new teammates, learn a new city, and try to get reacclimated to go out and play good football.’ So, it definitely was a crazy experience. But I enjoyed every aspect of it.”
Despite the excitement of the past season, Dobbs is looking for more stability in 2024. He believes that his experience adapting to new offenses quickly will help him adjust faster in San Francisco.
Having played in offenses similar to Shanahan’s scheme earlier in his NFL career, Dobbs eagerly accepted the chance to work with the coach who developed it.
“When the opportunity presented itself to be a part of what’s been going on here, what’s been built here over the last several seasons, but also being in an offense, in a scheme and can learn from the guy that really created it within the NFL, I jumped at that opportunity,” he said.
Dobbs, who majored in aerospace engineering at Tennessee, spent part of his offseason learning to fly planes.
He has completed 35 of the 40 hours required to earn his private pilot’s license and mentioned that flying in the busy airspace of Northern California is somewhat similar to playing quarterback in the NFL.
“There’s actually a lot of crossover,” he said. “That talk to FAA, they repeat, they say a call, you’ve got to repeat it back to them very specifically.
You’ve got a lot of stuff going on. It’s just like what you’re saying in the pocket. You got to call out one of coach Shanahan’s plays. They get real wordy in there. So it’s been good crossover between the two.”
Dobbs is vying with Brandon Allen for the backup quarterback position in San Francisco. Allen had an advantage early in the offseason after being the third-stringer for the 49ers last season, but Dobbs has appeared more at ease with each practice.
Mastering the offense is challenging, as Allen experienced last season. He started camp as the fourth-stringer behind Purdy, Sam Darnold, and Trey Lance but made the team when the Niners traded Lance to Dallas in August, shortly after drafting him third overall.
Allen did not play during the regular season but feels more prepared with an extra year in the system.
“I think everyone knows Kyle’s offense is difficult at times to kind of get down, to kind of be really comfortable in and it comes with, with reps and studying and all that,” Allen said. “So I think having that whole year last year to be in it and then come back again this year with the same system has been good.
Definitely more comfortable, mainly in terms of verbiage. I’ve been able to call the plays a lot easier, visualize in my head. So, I definitely think last year helped.”
