Last week, former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Josh Dobbs experienced what was a whirlwind of changes and, for lack of a better word, lies. He went from having a vote of confidence from his head coach to benched to traded and then his week ended having to play and leading the Minnesota Vikings, his new team, to a win and winning NFC Offensive Player of the Week.
In the days leading up to his trade from Arizona to Minnesota, head coach Jonathan Gannon twice said things that didn’t end up being true.
Dobbs appeared on the Torchbearers podcast and recalled the crazy two days from Sunday to Tuesday.
Gannon told reporters Sunday after the Cardinals lost 31-24 to the Baltimore Ravens that Dobbs would be his starting quarterback in Cleveland in Week 9.
The next day, Dobbs said that Gannon told him in a meeting that rookie Clayton Tune would start that week, leading up to Kyler Murray’s return,
This was a day before the NFL trade deadline.
Dobbs said that Gannon told him he wasn’t going anywhere.
“He looked at me in the face and said, ‘You’re not getting traded; you’re not being released,'” Dobbs said. “‘You’re going to be here in Arizona.'”
He woke up the next day on Tuesday to a text from his agent saying he could be traded to either the Vikings or traded back to the Browns, who traded him to the Cardinals before the season.
He was traded with a seventh-round pick to the Vikings for a sixth-round pick.
So twice Gannon said something that ended up changing. He said Dobbs would start. Then he was benched. He told Dobbs he was going to stay in Arizona. He was traded.
The rest is history. He rallied Minnesota to a 31-28 win over the Falcons, throwing two touchdown passes, converting a two-point conversion pass and rushing for a touchdown, all after Jaren Hall was knocked out of the game and had not even had a single rep in practice with the first-team offense.
The two things on the Cardinals’ side of things that stand out are the changes after Gannon had said something either publicly or to Dobbs. The other is the possibility of being traded back to the Browns.
He was on the Browns most of last season, released by them, re-signed by them in the offseason and traded to the Cardinals. It would have been wild to have been traded back there for his third stint in less than two years.
Dobbs is set to start for the Vikings in Week 10.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
