HEADLINES

Jaren Hall

Vikings To Start Josh Dobbs In Week 10; Jaren Hall In Concussion Protocol

November 6th, 2023 at 1:36pm CST by Adam La Rose

The start of the Kirk Cousins-less schedule did not go as planned for the Vikings, with rookie quarterback Jaren Hall leaving his debut due to a concussion. His replacement fared well, though, and he has earned a start as a result.

Josh Dobbs – who was thrust into action days after arriving with the Vikings because of Hall’s injury – led his new team to a dramatic comeback victory. Dobbs threw a touchdown in the final minute of play to help Minnesota earn a 31-28 win, and his performance will see him take first-team reps in practice this week. Head coach Kevin O’Connell named Dobbs the team’s projected Week 10 starter on Monday.

As NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero notes, Hall is in concussion protocol, which threatens his availability for the team’s upcoming game against the Saints. With fellow depth option Nick Mullens on IR, it comes as no surprise that Minnesota will turn to Dobbs at the top of the re-arranged QB depth chart. Cousins’ Achilles tear has left the team in need of a bridge starter to close out the season.

That unfortunate turn appeared to give Hall a chance to receive valuable in-game action to help his own development and the Vikings’ evaluation of a potential Cousins successor. The latter is set to have his contract expire this offseason, and it remains to be seen if a new deal will be worked out in the coming months. A fifth-rounder out of BYU, Hall has managed only 22 snaps between the end of Week 8 and the beginning of yesterday’s contest, however.

Cousins’ injury led to Minnesota’s decision to add an experienced insurance policy under center, which took the form of the Dobbs acquisition. The latter started eight games with the Cardinals in the absence of Kyler Murray this season, arriving in the desert after being dealt away by the Browns in a deal which came about rather suddenly. Having developed a knack for playing on extremely short notice dating back to his Titans cameo last season, Dobbs will find himself in familiar territory next week when he starts his first Vikings game. It will be interesting to see how he performs against New Orleans and how Minnesota handles the QB spot once Hall is cleared.

Cardinals To Trade QB Josh Dobbs To Vikings

October 31st, 2023 at 1:33pm CST by Sam Robinson

1:33pm: The Vikings are preparing Hall for the Week 9 start, Kevin O’Connell said (via the Associated Press’ Rob Maaddi). Dobbs suiting up is possible, per O’Connell. Dobbs has a history of being ready on short notice, having started barely a week after the Titans signed him off the Lions’ practice squad.

12:38pm: For the second time this year, Josh Dobbs will be traded. A day after Jonathan Gannon indicated it will be Kyler Murray or Clayton Tune starting for the Cardinals in Week 9, the team will unload Dobbs.

The Vikings, who lost Kirk Cousins for the season in Week 8, will bring in the veteran backup/spot starter, Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com report. The Cardinals had acquired Dobbs, 28, from the Browns in late August; he will now join a QB room featuring two injured players. Cousins’ Week 1 backup, Nick Mullens, is also on IR. This comes two days after Gannon said Dobbs would start against the Browns, pointing to the Week 9 benching being driven by these trade talks.

Arizona will send Dobbs and a seventh-round pick to Minnesota for a sixth-rounder, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter. Conditions are included that can turn the seventh-round pick the Vikings are receiving into a sixth, per Schefter. This will amount to a flier for the Vikings, who have not previously needed to deal with an injury absence in their six seasons with Cousins.

While this might not satisfy Vikings fans eager for a higher-profile name, Dobbs will come to the Twin Cities with eight 2023 starts under his belt. After being expected to trot out Colt McCoy while Murray finished his recovery from a December 2022 ACL tear, the Cardinals instead plugged in Dobbs. The team delivered some surprisingly competitive efforts, but it has fallen to 1-7. Tune is expected to start for Arizona in Week 9, with Murray moving close to a return.

On the season, Dobbs has completed 62.8% of his passes (at just 5.9 yards per attempt) and has thrown eight touchdown passes compared to five interceptions. Not exactly equipped with a high-end skill-position corps, Dobbs also came to the desert barely two weeks before the season. The Browns had planned to use Dobbs as their backup, but they viewed fifth-round rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson has having made enough progress. Cleveland quickly benched Thompson-Robinson for practice squad pickup P.J. Walker, who has become Deshaun Watson‘s top backup.

The Vikings turned to fifth-round draftee Jaren Hall as Cousins’ emergency replacement, but they now have some options. The team has used Sean Mannion as Cousins’ backup in multiple seasons; Mannion is back on the Vikes’ practice squad. Hall and Mannion had loomed as the team’s top healthy options, but Mullens is expected to come off IR at some point. A back injury moved Mullens to IR earlier this month. Mullens can return after one more missed game.

For his career, Dobbs has made 10 starts. His teams are 1-9 in those games. Granted, Dobbs has not been thrust into good situations when asked to start. His initial two starts came for an injury-riddled Titans team last season, and while the former Steelers draftee showed better form compared to Malik Willis last season, Tennessee still lost both his starts. The noted rocket scientist engineered an upset win over the Cowboys earlier this season, but the Cardinals have lost their past five games. Murray is also believed to be fully healthy and ready to return. With Tune in place as a possible long-term backup, the Cards did not have a clear role for Dobbs.

Loosely connected to Jacoby Brissett — whom Dobbs backed up during his 2022 Cleveland stopover — the Vikings are not necessarily ruled out from another starter option. Carson Wentz remains available, and Matt Ryan contacted the Jets after Aaron Rodgers‘ injury. Tom Brady has unretiring experience, though the QB icon was viewed as a nonstarter for the Jets in September. But the Dobbs move does almost definitely close the book on any other QB additions via trade for the 4-4 Vikings.

NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/12/23

May 12th, 2023 at 9:09pm CST by Ely Allen

Rookie minicamps started today and more rookies put the names on the dotted line of their four-year contracts. Here are the mid- to late-round picks who signed today:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Chargers

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

Pittsburgh Steelers

Washington Commanders

Vikings Not Ruling Out Another Kirk Cousins Extension

May 3rd, 2023 at 10:47pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Vikings participated in the Day 3 run on quarterbacks, taking BYU’s Jaren Hall in Round 5. But two years after making an effort to trade up for Justin Fields, Minnesota does not look to have a true Kirk Cousins heir apparent.

GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah scouted Hall in-person but declined to say if the 25-year-old rookie could be a potential Cousins successor. The Vikings discussed another extension with Cousins, but the sides ended up reaching a restructure agreement in March. After signing three Vikings contracts (in 2018, 2020 and 2022), Cousins is due for free agency after this season. The Vikings are not closing the door on another Cousins contract.

“When you go into a contract negotiation, you’re trying to come up with solutions together,” Adofo-Mensah said, via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. “It’s not just what Kwesi wants or what the Vikings want or what Kirk wants. It’s what we can do together to ultimately put up that Lombardi. Sometimes you come to a place where you decide, ‘Hey, let’s talk later. This is a solution for now.’ That’s all that’s happened.”

Entering his sixth year as the Vikings’ starter, Cousins made it to the Twin Cities because of the unique leverage his two Washington franchise tags created. Cousins parlayed that into a fully guaranteed deal (three years, $84MM) that accelerated a QB-market boom. He later signed a two-year, $66MM deal in 2020 and agreed to a one-year, $35MM bump in 2022. Both the latter accords reduced Cousins’ cap number. This year’s restructure did the same; Cousins counts $20.25MM on Minnesota’s 2023 cap. But, excluding void years, the 12th-year passer is unsigned beyond 2023.

Being 2-for-5 in playoff appearances with the Vikings and having won one career postseason game, Cousins has still been one of this era’s premier earners. Exiting the 2022 season, he has banked $201MM. The skyrocketing QB market would make him an interesting player next year, but the Vikings have exclusive negotiating rights until next March.

As a mid-30-something QB on the market — should he reach free agency for a second time — Cousins will not carry the same kind of value he did back in 2018. But a quality season — one in which T.J. Hockenson and first-round pick Jordan Addison will be in the fold come Week 1 — would still make him a viable commodity, in the event the Vikings do not use their exclusive negotiating rights to reach a fourth agreement with Cousins before next year’s legal tampering period.

“We like where we are at the quarterback position,” Adofo-Mensah said. “But every option is open to us going forward. We’re just really excited about Kirk this year. The weapons we’ve added in free agency, the weapons we added in the draft [will help], and we’ll see what happens after that.”

The franchise tag might not be a viable option for the Vikings, and Cousins may not be worthy of such a designation by next year. Drew Brees won a grievance regarding the tag in 2012, indicating that, despite being tagged by two teams in nonconsecutive years (2005, 2012), a third tag should still come in at 144% of his previous year’s salary. No player has been tagged three times since the Jaguars cuffed safety Donovin Darius from 2003-05. Subsequent CBAs, however, have contained language — the 144% component — that effectively prevents a third tag.

On less steady ground with the Titans, Ryan Tannehill is the other experienced starter on track for free agency in 2024. Though, as the 2020s QB trade markets have illustrated, more will likely be available. Cousins’ Minnesota status will obviously be worth monitoring ahead of that point.

Vikings Select BYU QB Jaren Hall At No. 164

April 29th, 2023 at 1:59pm CST by Ben Levine

The Vikings have added a quarterback with their fifth-round pick. The team used pick No. 164 to select BYU QB Jaren Hall.

Thanks in part to his medical redshirt year in 2020, his lack of size (6’0″, 207 pounds), and the fact that he’s 25, Hall found himself slide to the fifth round of the draft. However, the quarterback has still drawn strong reviews from coaches and scouts for his anticipation and his ability to extend plays.

After sitting behind Zach Wilson and redshirting in 2020, Hall got into 22 games for Brigham Young over the past two seasons, including a productive 2022 campaign where he finished with 3,171 passing yards and 31 touchdowns. Hall also showed some promise in the running game, adding another 350 yards and three scores.

Kirk Cousins is still firmly entrenched as Minnesota’s starting quarterback, but there could be an opening for a backup gig. Hall will battle with Nick Mullens for the QB2 gig heading into the 2023 campaign.

Hall marks the 12th QB to be selected in the first five rounds of the draft. As ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets, this is a new record for the Common Draft Era.