Kurt Warner Defends Josh Dobbs with Passionate Video Breakdown

Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell announced on Tuesday that Nick Mullens is the team’s new starting quarterback on Saturday vs the Cincinnati Bengals.

That means Josh Dobbs, who was benched in the 4th quarter of last week’s 3-0 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, will find himself on the sidelines wearing a headset instead of on the field wearing a helmet.

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And there’s one former quarterback who isn’t happy about that, NFL Hall of Famer, Kurt Warner. On top of his work as a high school football coach, NFL studio analyst and color commentator, Warner has his own YouTube channel, which he uses to break down film of NFL quarterbacks and teach QB skills to youngsters.

Kurt Warner Defends Josh Dobbs QB Honor

This week, his main study was Josh Dobbs. Kurt wanted to deep dive the film, because he thought Josh played better vs the Raiders than he’s getting credit for. That, contrary to popular belief, Josh is a pocket quarterback who can efficiently go through his progressions and deliver on-target footballs to receivers.

During his 18-minute breakdown, which included 15-20 passing plays from Sunday’s game, Warner grows continually frustrated with the route combinations O’Connell is deploying, along with drops and bad routes from Vikings wide receivers (if you don’t want to turn sound on, turn on closed captions in clips below).

For each play, Kurt points out where Dobbs’ reads start and he takes viewers through each progression, marking receivers who are open and receivers who aren’t. His conclusion: There’s really nothing Josh could have done better on Sunday afternoon.

That receivers weren’t open, in large part due to poor route planning by KOC, and when they were, he was under pressure. Essentially, it wouldn’t have mattered who was quarterbacking the Vikings last weekend. They all would have struggled like Josh Dobbs did.

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Excuses, excuses, excuses…

I watched the entire video. Obviously, Kurt Warner is an HOF QB and knows a lot more than I do about the QB position. But watch some of these yourself. There are numerous instances where Kurt notes that receivers are open here or open there.

But each time he points out an open guy, Kurt has a reason for why Dobbs didn’t make the throw or complete the pass. His go-to excuse is how many progressions Josh has to go through to find open receivers.

This seems like a classic example of self-created bias. Kurt watched the game live and didn’t like the hate he was seeing on social media. His feelings got involved and now he’s watching Josh play with rosy sunglasses on. There’s always an excuse for why a play or game didn’t work out.

Conclusion: Playing QB in the NFL is hard (shocker)

Playing quarterback in the NFL is really really hard. Josh Dobbs is a professional NFL QB, making him one of the best 50 quarterbacks in the world. It doesn’t surprise me that he can get to his 3rd, 4th or 5th read.

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What makes the difference between Josh and a good QB at this level? If a good quarterback has to go to his 3rd, 4th or 5th reads to find an open receiver, they hit that 3rd, 4th or 5th option for a positive play. Dobbs got four starts for the Vikings and did not prove capable of doing that.

Can Nick Mullens be that guy? Who knows… but we might as well find out, since we know Josh Dobbs can’t. Here’s Kurt’s full video breakdown of Dobbs performance in Las Vegas.