Steelers QB Joshua Dobbs' Development is Progressing

Not flawless by any means, but composed. I don't see any confidence in him or the offense when he's on the field. Batch was different from that perspective. My expectations for a backup are always less than the starter, obviously. But he has shown me nothing to believe he is the guy moving forward, which is where Pittsburgh needs to be at the stage of the game with Ben. I don't know if Dobbs is the guy either, all I know is Jones isn't.

 

That's cool but the guy in charge said today that they have to prepare for life after Ben which is why they drafted Dobbs and resigned Jones so that they don't have to scramble when Ben retires. So if KC has confidence in them I think that should go a ways towards calming some fears.

I will agree with you about LJ's confidence but it's hard to gain confidence when you are going from spending a highly successful college career never taking snaps under center in a prostyle offense to trying to learn one. When he has gotten work it's either vanilla play calling in the preseason with guys fighting for a depth spot or injury relief of Ben where they aren't reinventing the wheel and game planning to your strengths which his taking snaps from the shotgun.

This us why it will be hard to evaluate Dobbs and his progress. They will go vanilla tomorrow and look at his mechanics and comprehension but won't game plan to use his legs or to really play to his skill set. Plus he won't get most of the starters to highlight his skills either.

 

All the information that has been thrown at him he will retain like a sponge like technique, playbook, ect. I just hope he can take the info and put it to use on the field.

I expect mistakes, as a rookie the game is moving very fast. I just want him to have good fundamentals and take control of the offense and show leadership. He is getting valuable playing time that will help with that and his confidence.

 

I see your points about how he has the backing of the team and FO. I guess my overall point is that we've already seen his ceiling, you know what you're getting, and he's not going to be a part of the future. If Ben was 26 that wouldn't matter to me. It matters a little more now.

 

Lets see... If Garapollo was not on the Pats would he come in and play as well.. He has the tools to work with.. Daniels sets up the plays, Amendola, Edelman, Gronki... The Pats BU looks good. Our backup should look just as good with the OL, WR's, RB's we have... LJ is not good.

 

brady and rogers look better than ben but does that mean he isn't good? lj looked better against NE last year than ben did. he had another TD pass called back on a phantom holding call. he throws at nearly a 62% completion rate. that ain't bad for any qb. i don't think we have seen lj's ceiling yet. will we? who knows but we have a pretty decent backup for now who has improved in his time here.

 

Ok... I like the deer in the headlights analogy.. NFL stats.. LJ has -9 yards rushing... 7 TD's and 6 INT's... He can not get out of his own way.
I was in Miami last year when Ben got hurt... LJ came in and looked awful.. Ben had to limp back into the game to finish the disaster...
Ever since that game... LJ is a zero... I hope Dobbs lights it up tonight. We need a good BU.

 

If Dobbs looks near as good as Watson and Trubisky looked in their first NFL game he has potential........

 

ben looked bad in that game too. ben had all the reps leading up to that game too. i don't want our qbs running. as butler told dobbs, that will attract a lot of attention. LJ does stand in and take a hit to deliver a pass. not a lot of qb's do that. it's fine if you don't like him but expecting him to come off the bench cold and preform a miraculous comeback when the whole team was flat is not a reason for all the hate. hell ben threw 13 interceptions last year and some were pretty ugly.

 

Another thought..

A team plans for Ben.... Then if Ben goes down in the game.. and you come in with another slug like LJ who can not move.. now they stack 8 in the box.... If you have a Trubisky or Dobbs that can at least roll out fast and pass on the run your in better shape and the defense has not planned for it.

 

Will dobbs be the next dak?


Nah

Will he be the next filler like batch?

Hope so.

Just need someone to pilot this ship WHEN Ben goes down, and keep it afloat til he comes back.

 

Whoever replaces Ben will be scrutinized to death by the fans and media, as soon as he has a bad game everyone will be screaming for the backup, you dont replace a legend without expectations that he will be compared to Ben after every game, it's not going to be easy for any QB to replace Ben and the fan base will be split on how that QB is playing game after game, so get the microscopes ready because who ever it is he better be thick skinned because the criticism is going to be coming his way fast and furious and this transition is not going to be easy.........

 

he shouldn't have to run with the weapons we have on offense. let them stack the box.

 



It will be a great night if he shows command of the offense tonight...

 

Without Bell and Brown, I'd just like to see Dobbs engineer some first downs and make smart throws. I don't even care if we see the End Zone, as long as the offense looks competent.

 

As a side point, Garapollo has 10 total yards rushing, with two extra career games. I'm not sure it's a good stat for your point.

My view is the issue is less LJs mobility and more the speed of his reads, which may or may not be linked to his accuracy, which is good but certainly not elite.

As a back up, he's fine...

But I'm really intrigued by how Dobbs looks tonight.

 

Agreed. Dobbs definately has never had the OL or the weapons at receiver he will have with the Steelers but if he has to run he can take off.

I hope they have told him to slide, he never hesitated to lower his shoulder.

 

LJ is lookin pretty good right now.

 

So far the same Dobbs we've seen at UT...

 

Yep. And this aint college football anymore.

 

He has made a couple of nice throws tonight, including the touchdown, but overall the Steelers can't be particularly happy with what they've seen from Dobbs tonight.

 

Pretty sure he isn't worrying about Dobbs unseating him as #2.

 

I'm not jumping on the band wagon on a rookie I know diddly squat about, but passing judgement after half of a preseason game is a bit premature.

 

He's a rookie guys. Im a big supporter and said there would be mistakes. The game is moving very fast for him.