þNew Vikings QB is known for his education, which comes into play when cramming a new offense.
EAGAN — There are worse things in the world to be associated with than having a degree in rocket science.
New Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Dobbs knows it’s only a matter of time before it gets brought up and laughs about his impressive educational background following him everywhere. It took about seven minutes into his first press conference at TCO Performance Center for it to be mentioned that he majored in aerospace engineering and finished college with a 4.0 grade point average. Even if he might be a little tired of being asked about it, there is some relevance to joining the Vikings when it comes to his capacity for learning and applying knowledge.
Dobbs, who not only has the education but has worked as an intern with NASA in two separate offseasons, has landed (get it?) in a position where he needs to put his big brain to work quickly. He is set to serve as the Vikings’ backup just days after moving all of his furniture into his home in Arizona, where he had been the starting quarterback since Week 1, and could be starting in Minnesota as soon as next week.
“We’re not out there doing engineering equations out there on the field but the study habits for sure, I had to cram for a lot of engineering tests and procrastinated a little bit in college, this is very similar to that,” Dobbs said.
It isn’t even his first pop quiz this year. The former Tennessee quarterback began the year with the Cleveland Browns and then was acquired by the Cardinals on August 24 and started for them on September
“You’re not just studying it to memorize though but to actually go out and execute the plan,” he explained. “There’s two different things: I can tell you something and you can spit it back to me or I can tell you and you have to act on that information. Those are two different ways or processing information, obviously I’ve got to do the second one. Having to process a lot of information because of my trade in school definitely prepared me for situations like this. I wouldn’t say any quarterback is normally preparing to learn an offense and have to go out and play in a week but I have been in these situations.”
In a matter of a few days the 28-year-old journeyman has to focus on both understanding all the full picture of the offense as well as how the Vikings will specifically attack this week’s opponent, the Atlanta Falcons.
“You are half learning the general offense and everything that has been installed since OTAs, obviously that’s a lot of information,” Dobbs said. “But you are learning the necessary information to go out and play on Sunday quickly and at a high level and not be paralyzed by play calls and not thinking about the call…it’s a balancing act…you take in the gameplan and master that and then master the auxiliary information that could come up throughout the game.”
Dobbs is using any data points that he has to help him get up to speed. Earlier this year the Cardinals played against the New York Giants, so he remembered watching the two Giants games against the Vikings from last year that he watched looking for hints about what their crafty defensive coordinator might throw at him. In the process he took away some things about the Vikings’ offense.
“It’s funny, whenever I was playing an opponent I’d turn on some Vikings tape to watch them with the still and with Kirk and how the offense was run to get some ideas and see how a really good offense was going against really good defenses,” Dobbs said. “It’s cool to be on the other side of it in the meeting rooms and seeing the preparation.”
