The Tennessee Titans turned away from rookie quarterback Malik Willis in Week 17 against the Dallas Cowboys and went with Josh Dobbs, a guy who had been with the team for basically a week but has been in the hearts of Tennessee residents for nearly a decade.
Dobbs most certainly played better than Willis has this year, but there were still a lot of downs to go with the ups.
It has been a toxic week in the Titans community. Arguments about how to develop Willis, how to judge Dobbs’ performance, and what the team should do from here have swallowed Titans Twitter whole.
Some will tell you Dobbs should be on the bench so Willis can develop, and some will goes as far as to say Dobbs is better than Ryan Tannehill (Vols fans are WILD).
The reality is, the truth is somewhere in between. Yes, Dobbs is better than Malik at this moment and it is not particularly close.
However, saying a journeyman QB who has spent most of his career on practice squads is better than a top-12 QB in the NFL is just as asinine.
How do we cut through the narratives and agendas to find the truth on Dobbs? If you know me, you know the my answer will be the film.
You’ve heard the old phrase, “Women lie, men lie, but the tape don’t!”
Well maybe I made that up, but it is true. So, as we always do, let’s take a look at the tape to see all the good and the bad that Dobbs offered.
The good: Play No. 1
This was Dobbs’ best play of the night. It included intelligence, pocket movement and accuracy.
The Cowboys show a two-high safety look, but at the snap the boundary safety dives down to be a hook defender. This leaves the deep safety on the other side of the field away from Racey McMath, and the cornerback guarding McMath is playing outside technique.
This leaves a huge hole in between the safety and the cornerback, and Dobbs recognizes this right away and makes an accurate throw in a tight window for the biggest completion of the night.
My favorite part of the play might be the pocket navigation, though. Dobbs does well to slide sideways to give himself space to hit the throw before the pressure gets home. This play really shows everything that makes Dobbs solid.
The good: Play No. 2
Simple but effective play from Dobbs here. Three pass-catchers to the left and Burks isolated to the right. Dobbs wants to go to the trips side and he looks at two different options, the middle man and then to Austin Hooper.
Nothing is open on the left, so he gets through the progressions and gets a one-on-one matchup with Burks on the right; an accurate ball and an easy completion.
This is one of the biggest differences between Willis and Dobbs. Malik cannot process this quickly and it makes a big difference.
Side note: Burks has been good this year, but he has not shown the yards-after-catch ability we hoped to see. As he gets more comfortable, hopefully plays like this continue to happen.
The good: Play No. 3
Todd, are you reading this?
I hope you are. This play is a perfect example of how to use Dobbs or any of the Titans’ QBs, for that matter, but I’m just a blogger/podcast host, so what do I know, right?
The offensive line is awful, so getting Dobbs on the move and changing the launch point helps keep him clean. He’s also a smooth athlete, so you are working to his skillset.
Not only that, but giving Dobbs only half the field to read helps him make the right decision, too.
The first two options are not open. Dobbs does a great job of continuing to PRESS the sideline and not bail the defense out by coming forward. He is patient and eventually finds Burks as the backside option coming over the middle of the field. Accurate throw, nice completion.
The good: Play No. 4
Nice route combination and design here.
Westbrook-Ihkine runs the end zone flag route and it pulls No. 6 for Dallas up the field. Woods comes back inside on the reverse whip route and sits down perfectly. Woods is still a very smart player.
Dobbs delivers to the open man for the only touchdown of the night. Again, my favorite part is the lateral movement in the pocket. Dobbs slides to give himself room to get this done. He’s much better sliding sideways than he is moving forward, though.
The bad: Play No. 1
If you are a Vols fan or a Dobbs homer, this is the time to turn around.
There is a reason Dobbs has not been able to stick with a team or get a real chance to start games in the league, and it isn’t because every team he has been on is just dumb; he has serious flaws in his game.
He is reluctant to climb pockets, has below average arm strength, makes poor decisions when the play breaks down and has ball security issues. Dobbs is lucky he didn’t have five total turnovers after he fumbled twice and threw three balls directly to Cowboys players.
The Cowboys show two-high again, but roll at the snap into a Cover 3 zone. Woods is running a deep in route, and with this route against this coverage, this ball needs to be thrown more to the middle of the field to keep Woods away from the deep safety who is driving forward.
The ball is inaccurate, and instead of leading Woods into the middle of the field, Dobbs puts the ball up the field more. Woods gets hands on it, but it’s not where he is expecting.
If this is thrown properly and more into the middle, Woods is not only able to get it, but has room to run, as Hooper pulls the middle defender away from the opening.
This might be an OK throw in college, but in the NFL, ball placement has to be better.
The bad: Play No. 2
This is a big issue with Dobbs and I have had some Vols folks reach out and say he struggled with this in college, too. I could not find Dobbs stats to corroborate that so I will trust the opinions of those who watched.
And honestly, based on what I saw, I can believe it.
First and foremost, Dobbs needs to slide forward here. One of the knocks on him out of school was his reluctance to climb pockets. I showed you earlier how well he does sliding sideways, but this is not a fumble if he simply slides forward.
Also, he has two hands on the ball and STILL gets it knocked out — must be stronger with the pill. Luckily, Dobbs is able to pick it back up, but then the other worst part of his game shows up.
Once the play breaks down, Dobbs loses defenders. If he gets on the move, he struggles to keep an idea of where the defense is.
Here, he almost creates a SECOND turnover chance by throwing a dangerous ball to the sideline. Don’t make it this close, Josh. Toss that thing to the bench and leave no chance for this.
Second one is actually a fumble. Dobbs can’t do much; this is a sack, no matter what AND it looks like Le’Raven Clark is who knocks it out. But again, Dobbs has two hands on the ball. Must be stronger with the pill.
The bad: Play No. 3
Another example here of how Dobbs just struggles to know where the defenders are. A bootleg gets Dobbs out of the pocket and he wants to hit Hooper on the drag route.
Here is the part where I stick up for Dobbs a little, though: what in the world is Chris Conley doing? He’s supposed to come out and pretend like he is going to block and then dart outside to pull the CB with him.
For some reason, Conley doesn’t seem to know it is going to be a pass and he never goes out. This allows Diggs to drive forward on the Hooper drag.
I actually won’t even blame Conley because we have seen WRs doing the wrong thing so often that, at this point, it is on the coaches. If every student in the class fails the quiz, the teacher failed, not the students.
However, Dobbs has to see this and not put this ball in harm’s way. Not all his fault, but he does this so much that it is only a matter of time before it actually becomes a turnover. Speaking of…
The bad: Play No. 4
We keep coming back to this, but once the play breaks down and Dobbs gets on the move, he drops his head initially to get loose and then tries to re-assess the field — he does not do it well.
Dobbs needs to read the corner better here. He has the ball in his hands as the corner drops back. This ball needs to be to Hooper short or out of bounds. He tries to force it further up the sideline instead and the CB drops backwards for an easy pick.
Wrapping it up
For the sake of time, I left out a few really inaccurate throws: one to Hooper on a flag route that was almost picked by Diggs, a ball thrown too far behind Burks on a fourth down that would have been a catch and a YAC opportunity if accurately thrown, and a pass to Burks in the end zone that was WIDE OPEN but Dobbs threw it behind and short.
The point is, there was even more bad than I had time to show.
On the flipside, Dobbs also made some routine throws throughout the day that were critical to keeping the flow of the offense. They weren’t sexy, but after watching Malik, you see how valuable they are.
Dobbs is a practice-squad to low-level backup QB. Sadly, the Titans haven’t had that in a while because Logan Woodside isn’t an NFL player (once his last lifeline, Arthur Smith, let’s him go, it’s curtains), and right now Malik Willis is not an NFL player, either.
So, Dobbs looks like water to a man in the desert. Now, with that said, if the Titans are able to create turnovers, limit their own turnovers and Downing calls the offense to help Dobbs, I think he could pilot them to a division title.
Not likely, but possible.
However, Titans fans would be smart to be realistic about who Dobbs is and what he can be going forward. I would love to see him back next year to compete for a backup role, but asking for anything more than that is asking for too much.
