Josh Dobbs says Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon told him he wouldn't be traded
Josh Dobbs was sure he would finish the 2023 season with the Arizona Cardinals (1-8). At least, that’s what head coach Jonathan Gannon assured him in a meeting ahead of the trade deadline.
Dobbs, speaking on the “Torchbearers” podcast, said that Gannon told him he would remain QB1 until Kyler Murray returned from his injury. Gannon then reversed course, telling Dobbs that rookie signal-caller Clayton Tune would get the start in Week 9.
According to Dobbs, Gannon maintained that he wouldn’t be moved even after Tune was named the starter moving forward.
“I go to the facility on Monday and JG, the head coach in Arizona, called me into his office and said, ‘We’re going to start Clayton Tune,’” Dobbs said, via Pro Football Talk. “I was upset with it, but I understood the situation the franchise was in.”
Dobbs didn’t remain in Arizona after the 4 p.m. deadline had passed. The Cardinals traded him to the Minnesota Vikings (5-4) along with a conditional 2024 seventh-round pick in return for a 2024 sixth-round pick.
“Woke up Tuesday morning with a text from my agent saying, ‘You could be traded today because it’s the trade deadline,’” Dobbs said. “And listen to this — when I had my meeting with JG in Arizona, he looked at me in the face and he said, ‘You’re not getting traded, you’re not being released, you’re going to be here in Arizona’. I was like, OK, cool. So, then I woke up to that text saying all right the trade deadline’s in four hours. You could be traded, you could go to Minnesota or go back to Cleveland.”
Josh Dobbs leads Vikings to victory in first outing with team
Five days later, Dobbs pulled off one of the most miraculous performances by a quarterback you’ll ever see. After Vikings rookie quarterback Jaren Hall suffered a concussion in the first quarter against the Atlanta Falcons (4-5), Dobbs was summoned from the bench to play after less than a week of being in the building.
Based on the way he played, you would have never known that Dobbs had just arrived. In three quarters of action, he completed 20-of-30 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns. He added 66 yards and a score on the ground. The Vikings defeated the Falcons, 31-28.
“He can change the game athletically,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said after the game. “That’s something that we knew, quite honestly. Bringing him here was one of the traits, in addition to his leadership quality, his smarts, his toughness. You’ve got to be a mentally tough guy to do what he did today in addition to being physically tough.”