Jaren Hall Named Vikings Backup QB; Josh Dobbs Demoted to Emergency QB3

The Minnesota Vikings have announced another change at quarterback for Saturday’s game vs the Cincinnati Bengals. Not only has Josh Dobbs lost his starting QB role, Kevin O’Connell told media on Thursday that he’ll be inactive and serve as the emergency 3rd quarterback.

Jaren Hall named Minnesota Vikings QB2; Josh Dobbs inactive

That means he will be inactive, only able to activate, should starter Nick Mullens and 5th round rookie backup Jaren Hall are forced out of the game.

Head Coach Kevin O’Connell announces that Jaren Hall will back up Nick Mullens Saturday and Joshua Dobbs will serve as the emergency 3rd QB.

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 14, 2023

I’m sure Kurt Warner is pulling out his hair on Twitter right now, after spending hours Wednesday making a video that was supposed to prove why Josh Dobbs should still be the Viking starter. But this isn’t KOC vindictively punishing the Passtronaut.

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Why is this happening?

Remember, Dobbs just joined the Vikings a couple of months ago. He was still working with a limited playbook, while he was starting. Now that the offense has officially gone back to Mullens, they must feel it isn’t in their best interest to set time aside planning for what a limited Josh Dobbs playbook would look like, should Mullens get hurt.

If Hall is serving as Mullens’ backup the offense can, in theory, stick with the same game plan and call sheet that they worked on with the starters all week, no matter the QB. If I had to pick a reason for why this move makes sense, that would be it.