Joshua Dobbs was just discovering Minnesota for the first time on Halloween, arriving via trade from the Cardinals. A week later, fresh off an improbable upset of the Falcons, the journeyman quarterback is drawing praise from the most accomplished signal-caller in franchise history, with Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton arguing Monday that what Dobbs did in his unexpected debut was "impossible."
"How'd he do it?" Tarkenton said in a video posted to social media. "It's impossible for him to do what he did. He got us 30-plus points. ... He had to deal with the crowd noise. The position, when you come in five days before, nobody can do that. It's impossible to learn the offense. He didn't even know the players' names. And he certainly didn't understand the offense."
Tarkenton, who went to nine Pro Bowls and spent 13 years with the Vikings across an 18-year career from 1961-1978, suggested that coach Kevin O'Connell isn't getting enough credit for Minnesota's seamless switch from Kirk Cousins to Jaren Hall to Dobbs.
"People don't understand the system is important," he said. "And our head coach, he really understands how to put together an offensive team. ... Kirk Cousins may have been the best quarterback in the NFL until he got hurt. ... But even with the great system, it's impossible to do what Josh Dobbs did. Impossible. But he did it. ... It was a great thrill for me."
Dobbs, who took over in the first
