Top Players Battle ‘Far from a benching performance’…

Kurt Warner, the quarterback who won the Super Bowl, has defended Josh Dobbs, the quarterback for the Vikings, on social media after Minnesota revealed on Tuesday that Dobbs would be benched in favor of Nick Mullens, who started in his place in Sunday’s 3-0 victory in Las Vegas.

“After watching the Vikings tape, I feel bad for Dobbs because he was benched. very crucial to watch every play and not just focus on the outcomes… He performed admirably, in my opinion, even though he dropped passes frequently, missed some, and some things didn’t work. This was by no means a “benching” performance. Warner shared something on X, the social media site that was formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday.

According to Pro Football Focus, Vikings receivers dropped six passes during Sunday’s game; K.J. Osborn dropped two, and Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Jalen Nailor and Alexander Mattison each dropped one apiece.

As the Vikings offense struggled to move the ball throughout Sunday’s game, coach Kevin O’Connell eventually turned to Mullens for a spark, and he provided enough of one to lead Minnesota on its only scoring drive of the contest.

Dobbs completed just 10 of his 23 passes (43.5%) for 63 yards, but was pressured on 15 of his 33 drop backs, according to Pro Football Focus, and sacked five times.

Dobbs even received higher overall and passing grades from Pro Football Focus — 68.5 and 69.5, respectively, to Mullens’ 59.3 and 62.7.

However, Mullens led the game-winning drive and finished 9 of 13 passes (69.2%) for 83 yards after replacing Dobbs in the game. Mullens averaged 6.4 yards per attempt compared to Dobbs’ 2.7. On three of his thirteen dropbacks, he was under pressure and chose not to take a sack.

His biggest advantage over Dobbs was his average time to throw; Mullens released the ball in 2.67 seconds while Dobbs on average held the ball for 3.40 seconds.

Responding to a comment under his post on X that disagreed with his assessment, Warner said that Mullens didn’t play any better than Dobbs, who “made good decisions & throws for the most part!”

Warner may not agree, but O’Connell obviously does, as he chose to start Mullens under center for Saturday’s game in Cincinnati against the Bengals.