After coaching against Josh Dobbs on Sunday night, Sean Payton was blown away by the way Dobbs can command an offense he’s only been playing in for three weeks.
Although Payton’s Broncos beat Dobbs’ Vikings, Payton said he’s amazed that Dobbs, who’s on his third different team this season, seems perfectly comfortable in a system he’s just learning and with teammates he’s barely had time to practice with.
“Considering what he’s been through, where the year began . . . with Cleveland and then it was Arizona, and what he’s doing now,” Payton said, “there’s so much that goes into playing that position, and to see the poise he’s playing with is really remarkable. I haven’t seen anything like it.”
Payton said that before the 2017 NFL draft, when he was coach of the Saints, he spent time with both Dobbs and his Tennessee teammate, Alvin Kamara. The Saints drafted Kamara in the third round and the Steelers drafted Dobbs in the fourth. Payton said he liked Dobbs in his pre-draft evaluation, but has also been impressed with how much Dobbs has grown since then.
All 32 teams missed on Dobbs. In the past year he has passed through waivers unclaimed, he’s been a free agent and didn’t get any offers better than the one-year, $2 million deal he signed with the Browns, and has been traded twice for peanuts. A quarterback capable of playing at the level Dobbs has played at is an incredibly valuable asset, and not one NFL team recognized how valuable Dobbs is. It’s a reminder that for all the time and money NFL teams spend on evaluating players, sometimes good players slip through the cracks. Dobbs certainly has.