As largely expected
The Minnesota Vikings have officially made their choice at quarterback for this Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders, and they’ve made the move that they were widely expected to make.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell has announced that Josh Dobbs will once again get the start when the Vikings head to Vegas on Sunday. It will be the fourth start of the year for Dobbs since he was acquired from Arizona at the trade deadline.
The Vikings lost their last two games heading into their bye week, largely because the turnover bug that plagued them early in the season bit them again. They turned the ball over seven times in those two games, with Dobbs being responsible for six of them via five interceptions and a lost fumble. The team has, presumably, spent the bye week helping to get Dobbs more comfortable with what the team wants to do, so hopefully that will mitigate those issues significantly.
We asked our readers last week who they thought the Vikings should start at quarterback going forward, and the overwhelming majority went with rookie Jaren Hall, who started against Atlanta but was replaced by Dobbs after suffering a first-quarter concussion. However, it sounds like Hall will go back to being the #3 “emergency” quarterback, with Nick Mullens serving as the primary backup to Dobbs. When Hall was chosen to start the Atlanta game, Mullens was on injured reserve with a back issue that he had been dealing with but has since returned.
So, it would appear that the Vikings’ depth chart at quarterback, at least for now, is Dobbs/Mullens/Hall. If I had to take a guess, the proverbial leash is going to be a bit shorter for Dobbs going forward if he continues to turn the ball over at the rate he did in the two games before the bye week with Mullens ready to take over if necessary.
What do you think of the announcement, everyone?