SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Joshua Dobbs spent the 2023 season learning different NFL offenses on the fly. He hopes that experience helps him master coach Kyle Shanahan’s complex offense with the San Francisco 49ers enough to win the backup job behind Brock Purdy.
Dobbs’ 2023 season was a whirlwind. He signed with Cleveland in March only to be traded to Arizona less than three weeks before the season opener. Dobbs jumped right in and became the Week 1 starter before being dealt again before the trade deadline to Minnesota.
Dobbs then came off the bench to lead the Vikings to a win just a few days after arriving and without even knowing his teammates’ names. He started 12 games in all after making just two in his first five seasons, establishing himself as a capable NFL quarterback.
“It was crazy. I think crazy is the simplest term to define it,” Dobbs said Wednesday. “It seemed like every time you kind of got settled, it was like, ‘OK, let’s go learn a new offense, learn new teammates, learn a new city, and try to get reacclimated to go out and play good football.’ So, it definitely was a crazy experience. But I enjoyed every aspect of it.”
As enjoyable as that season was, Dobbs is seeking more stability in 2024. He feels the experience of learning offenses on the fly have helped him adjust more quickly in San Francisco.
After playing in offenses that were derived from Shanahan’s scheme earlier in his NFL career, Dobbs leaped at the chance to play for the coach at the forefront of it.
“When the opportunity presented itself to be a part of what’s been going on here, what’s been built here over the last several seasons, but also being in an offense, in a scheme and can learn from the guy that really created it within the NFL, I jumped at that opportunity,” he said.
Dobbs, an aerospace engineer major in college at Tennessee, spent part of his offseason learning to fly planes. Dobbs has completed 35 of his 40 hours needed to earn his private pilot’s license and said learning how to navigate the crowded air space in Northern California has some similarities to playing quarterback in the NFL.
“There’s actually a lot of crossover,” he said. “That talk to FAA, they repeat, they say a call, you’ve got to repeat it back to them very specifically. You’ve got a lot of stuff going on. It’s just like what you’re saying in the pocket. You got to call out one of coach Shanahan’s plays. They get real wordy in there. So it’s been good crossover between the two.”
Dobbs is competing with Brandon Allen for the No. 2 job in San Francisco. Allen had a leg up in the competition early in the offseason after spending last season as the third-stringer for the 49ers but Dobbs has looked more comfortable with each practice day.
But mastering this offense is far from easy, as Allen learned first-hand last season. He came into camp as the fourth-stringer behind Purdy, Sam Darnold and Trey Lance but ended up making the team when the Niners traded Lance to Dallas in August — just over two years after drafting him third overall.
Allen didn’t get on the field during the regular season but feels more ready with a second year of experience in the system.
“I think everyone knows Kyle’s offense is difficult at times to kind of get down, to kind of be really comfortable in and it comes with, with reps and studying and all that,” Allen said. “So I think having that whole year last year to be in it and then come back again this year with the same system has been good. Definitely more comfortable, mainly in terms of verbiage. I’ve been able to call the plays a lot easier, visualize in my head. So, I definitely think last year helped.”
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