Josh Dobbs’ rise to NFL prominence is tough to imagine — until you recognize him

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The retired professor set his laptop computer apart and reached for the distant. For greater than an hour, Chris Pionke had paid little consideration to the NFL recreation on the tv in entrance of him. The groups moved backwards and forwards throughout the display and the announcers offered evaluation, however Pionke was scrolling mindlessly on his laptop computer. That modified when he heard the identify.

Josh Dobbs.

Pionke, who taught engineering on the University of Tennessee for practically three a long time, perked up and elevated the amount. He questioned if the announcers have been simply mentioning the previous Volunteers quarterback, or if Dobbs was really within the recreation. He squinted on the display and noticed a tall, lanky, familiar-looking participant sporting the No. 15 in Minnesota Vikings white and purple.

Pionke hollered to his spouse who had been sitting over within the kitchen.

“Cindy!” Pionke mentioned. “Josh is in!”

Their Knoxville, Tenn., house livened instantly with soccer noises. Dobbs barked the pre-snap cadence. Linemen crashed into each other. Announcers yelled, astonished at what they have been watching. Pionke listened intently whereas Dobbs orchestrated a thriller of a victory in aid of rookie Jaren Hall regardless of having fewer than 5 days of preparation along with his new workforce.

TOUCHDOWN VIKINGS! TOUCHDOWN VIKINGS!

JOSH DOBBS TAKE OVER THE GAME!

📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/jChQH10AYF

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) November 5, 2023

The professor cheered excitedly however was not shocked. Those who knew Dobbs nicely — his former coaches, advisers, mentors, household and pals — felt a lot the identical approach.

Their response to Dobbs’ public introduction is greatest summed up by former Pittsburgh Steelers common supervisor Kevin Colbert, who reiterated the identical message 5 instances in a 10-minute cellphone name:

“If you know Josh, this is not surprising. This is not surprising at all.”

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Josh Dobbs confirmed up in Knoxville sporting a baby-blue swimsuit. Personalized enterprise playing cards crammed his pockets. An in depth schedule laid out his whole day.

Long earlier than he turned Tennessee’s starter, months earlier than he even dedicated to the college, Dobbs took a tour. Alongside his dad and mom, Stephanie and Robert, Dobbs was chaperoned throughout campus. They visited the soccer services in addition to the engineering lecture halls.

Behind the scenes, the athletic division had orchestrated a gathering with Matthew Mench, then the top of the aerospace engineering division.

Toward the tip of their dialog, Mench tossed out a query.

“What math are you currently taking?”

Dobbs deadpanned, “Differential equations.”

Mench’s eyebrow rose as if to say: “How in the hell?”

Differential equations, thoughts you, sometimes follows Calculus 1, Calculus 2, Matrix algebra and Calculus 3. A excessive schooler taking such a complicated class was extraordinary.

Why was Dobbs so superior?

Stephanie, a former UPS government, and Robert, a longtime banking government, deliberately uncovered Dobbs to an array of topics as he was rising up in Alpharetta, Ga., outdoors of Atlanta. They parented with a common creed: The world is yours, and you are able to do something you select.

“To be able to do that,” Stephanie mentioned, “you have to know what’s available.”

Stephanie and Robert sparked the youthful Dobbs’ curiosity by means of yearly journeys. They visited totally different schools. They explored museums. They needed their son to soak up all of it.

On a lot of these journeys, whereas sitting idly in bustling airports, Dobbs stood starry-eyed and watched as stunning equipment disappeared into the sky. Airplanes turned a fascination. As a youth, Dobbs requested his dad and mom limitless questions on what they have been and the way they labored. Years later, he would stand on the window and recite the make, mannequin and dimension of each airplane in sight.

As Dobbs reached center college, his dad and mom pushed him to strive quite a few actions. They allowed him to play soccer, basketball and baseball, versus specializing in a single. They advised he strive the saxophone. He joined the controversy workforce. Stephanie thought it’d be nice for Josh to strive the chess membership. That is, if he was really critical about beating her.

“He eventually did,” Stephanie mentioned. “Oh my goodness, I was heartbroken.”

As Dobbs reached highschool, math got here naturally. Dobbs loved problem-solving and was so proficient that he started taking higher-level math courses at a local people school as an upperclassman. Realizing he may pair his love of flight along with his aptitude for math, Dobbs determined to pursue aerospace engineering in school, which Mench described as a topic centered across the physics, supplies, construction and propulsion of the whole lot that flies in area.

Advisers tried to speak him out of it, outlining the schedule constraints and workload, however Dobbs would minimize them off. Stephanie and Robert backed their son’s imaginative and prescient as a result of they believed within the reward of passionate pursuit. And they knew their son was dedicated, doubts be damned.

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Two days into Dobbs’ first coaching camp as a freshman at Tennessee, Antone Davis, a UT soccer staffer, noticed Dobbs sitting on the ground inside the ability.

A playbook was sprawled out on the carpet beside him. Dobbs scanned the pages. Davis thought he’d play a joke on the beginner, so he hollered down the hallway.

“Hey rookie,” he yelled, “you about to learn those plays yet?”

Davis thought Dobbs would squirm. Instead, he seemed up and nodded convincingly.

“Yes sir,” Dobbs mentioned. “I know all of the concepts, and I know what they’re trying to do.”

Davis nodded awkwardly and stepped again into his workplace.

“I was, like, ‘Uhh, OK then.’”

Preparation was by no means an issue for Dobbs. He awoke at 6:30, attended class from 8-2, practiced and watched movie from 2:30-7, then completed his homework within the educational constructing from 7:30-10. If want be, he’d discover additional time for classwork or movie examine earlier within the morning or later within the night.

College soccer followers heard about this the primary time Dobbs performed a school soccer recreation. It was October 2013, and Tennessee’s beginning quarterback, Justin Worley, had injured his proper thumb. The Vols turned to Dobbs, then a freshman, on the street towards Alabama, the very best workforce within the nation. On the tv broadcast, CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson shared an anecdote that had been relayed to her by a Tennessee staffer.

A number of weeks earlier, Tennessee had performed Oregon in Eugene. The Vols misplaced the sport and flew house late at evening. All of the cabin lights on the flight have been darkish — apart from one. Tucked in the course of the airplane was Dobbs, who sat within the aisle and flipped by means of thick engineering books.

As Wolfson shared the story, Dr. Christopher Pionke listened and thought: Now I perceive how he accomplished his project in honors Engineering Fundamentals 157.

The class, to make use of Pionke’s personal phrases, was “relentless.” Students attended lectures Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday have been reserved for labs, tasks and drawback classes. That semester, Dobbs additionally took four-credit math and chemistry courses.

Backing up Worley helped Dobbs’ prioritization early on even when, away from the cameras, coaches already have been making a case for him to play.

During one assembly of the teaching employees, Davis mentioned, a coach interjected: “Guys, who are we going to get to play quarterback?”

Silence enveloped the room for just a few seconds, then a defensive coach blurted out, “Josh can do it.”

“He can’t run,” one other coach jawed again. “Josh can’t run.”

“Coach!” one other defensive staffer mentioned. “We can’t catch him on the scout team. We can’t catch him.”

“I’ll never forget that,” Davis mentioned. “That’s when (head coach) Butch (Jones) decided to give him an opportunity.”

Dobbs performed 5 video games his freshman season and entered spring follow in a full-on quarterback competitors. Away from the sphere, he was developing Olympic medal stands out of froth core and dealing his connections to safe an internship for the summer time.

Late within the spring, Jerry Wheeler, a longtime director of army engines at Pratt & Whitney and a Tennessee alum, acquired a cellphone name from a mutual buddy of the Dobbs household.

“There’s a member of the football team at Tennessee who would like to intern at Pratt & Whitney during the summer,” the buddy mentioned.

“I only know one guy on the football team who is an aerospace engineer major,” Wheeler responded.

“Yeah,” the mutual buddy mentioned, “it’s Josh.”

A number of months later, whereas Dobbs may have been having fun with his quick break from college, he confirmed up day by day to a management room in West Palm Beach, Fla., to watch pc show screens that filtered information on an engine mounted in entrance of them.

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Those who knew Dobbs at Tennessee typically really feel as if they’ve to supply a clarification.

I swear, they’ll say. He actually did all of this!

Sure, in his 4 years with the Vols, he accomplished 61.5 p.c of his passes for 7,138 yards and 87 touchdowns (53 passing, 32 dashing and two receiving). He led the workforce to 9-4 marks in his junior and senior seasons, setting a number of college data alongside the way in which. He graduated in 2017 with an ideal 4.0 GPA and received Tennessee’s 2017 Torchbearer Award, the best honor for an undergraduate pupil.

But there’s a lot extra.

One instance: the semester Dobbs met one-on-one with a professor every morning as a result of the category was at 3 p.m., the identical time as UT’s soccer follow.

Another instance: the time Dobbs left follow instantly to go converse at a Boy Scouts of America banquet three hours down the street in Atlanta. Brian Russell, the workforce’s educational adviser, drove Dobbs, who sat within the backseat and furiously tapped away at his pc. Upon arrival, he become a swimsuit, spoke to the children after which slept within the automobile on the three-hour drive again so he may attend class within the morning.

Another instance: the time Dobbs held up the Vols’ buses earlier than a street journey as a result of he was spending time with a younger lady who had been recognized with Alopecia areata, simply as he had. Davis had knowledgeable Dobbs that spending 5 minutes with the younger lady would suffice. Forty-five minutes later, Dobbs was laughing with the younger lady inside Tennessee’s indoor follow facility. She’d worn a wig, nervous about her situation, however Dobbs had made her really feel comfy sufficient that she took it off only for him. Coaches seen Dobbs was lacking and yelled for him, solely to seek out out later what he’d been as much as.

“That was one of the coolest moments,” Davis mentioned. “It was a time where he didn’t have time. And he took time to make time for the little girl.”

In 4 years, he turned a spokesperson for the engineering college. He visited with potential college students, spoke at banquets and met with donors. He mastered time administration in a approach Russell hadn’t witnessed earlier than (or since) with a pupil athlete.

“It was like you were dealing with a CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company,” Russell mentioned. “And I mean that seriously. The young man was one of the most special human beings I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with.”

The dynamics of Dobbs’ pre-NFL draft preparations solely furthered that feeling. In the spring of 2017, Dobbs cut up time between Knoxville and Bradenton, Fla., at IMG Academy. A few credit score hours remained, so he would practice at IMG from Friday by means of Tuesday and attend courses in Knoxville from Wednesday to Friday.

The journey? The mayhem? The totally different environments? Fulfilling obligations? Working with others? Operating in high-pressure environments?

This is all Josh Dobbs has identified.

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This previous weekend, as Pionke nestled into his recliner to look at Dobbs begin one other NFL recreation towards the New Orleans Saints, he thought to himself: Finally. The world is attending to see who Josh Dobbs is.

For years, the professor had adopted Dobbs’ path and waited for him to get his likelihood. The Steelers drafted him in 2017 as a developmental possibility behind Ben Roethlisberger. Colbert, the previous GM, mentioned Dobbs wowed the workforce along with his on-field efficiency. It’s simply that the Steelers had a Hall of Famer standing in his approach.

Cleveland signed Dobbs to a one-year, $1 million deal in 2022, however minimize him late within the season. The Browns requested to carry him again on the follow squad, Stephanie mentioned, however Dobbs felt that becoming a member of the Lions’ follow squad would give him the very best likelihood to succeed long run.

Needing a quarterback late final season, Tennessee recognized Dobbs as a participant who may study the Titans offense rapidly and “erase the gray when things didn’t play out clean,” mentioned one coach who had a task within the signing. In reality, Dobbs acclimated extra rapidly than they anticipated, the coach mentioned, and spoke steadfastly to coaches about tailoring the offense to the gamers already within the system — not him.

According to agent Mike McCartney, although Dobbs completed his two Titans begins a mediocre 40-for-68 passing (a 58.8 p.c completion price) for 411 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions and two misplaced fumbles, one coach informed Dobbs after his ultimate recreation, “You’re going to be our guy next year.”

A regime change in Tennessee altered these plans, and the Titans finally drafted quarterback Will Levis. Only two groups expressed actual curiosity this offseason, in keeping with McCartney: Cleveland and Arizona.

“I remember thinking to myself: ‘Did anybody watch these two Tennessee games?’” McCartney mentioned. “‘Do we not watch the tape? Not one pre-snap penalty in two games with a guy who just arrived nine days before his first start?’ It just didn’t completely make sense that only two teams had interest.”

After reviewing each groups’ infrastructures, Dobbs, now 28, signed with the Browns. During the preseason, although, they traded him to the Cardinals, the place lastly, after six years of spotty enjoying time, a recreation plan was constructed round his talent set. Eight begins later, following admirable showings towards a number of of the NFL’s greatest defenses, Dobbs was on the transfer once more.

He flew to a brand new metropolis. He buried himself in a brand new playbook. He stayed on the facility with Vikings assistant quarterbacks coach Grant Udinski late on Friday afternoon to make sure he may function the sport plan.

In the eyes of Dobbs’ dad and mom, that, actually, is the story right here. Eschewing the trail of least resistance. Exhausting all accessible assets. Preparing your self for the chance in order that when the time comes, the one people who find themselves stunned are those who don’t know you in any respect.

(Top picture: Adam Bettcher / Getty Images)

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