Pro Football Focus has Josh Dobbs as the HIGHEST RATED QB the last 2 preseason games...

Guess this is why Cris Collinsworth (who is the majority owner of Pro Football Focus) said during the NBC telecast this Sunday that the competition for the #2 job might be coming down to the final preseason game. Despite the media and fan narrative that has already anointed Mason Rudolph the #2 QB, it looks like according to the "football guys" that actually watch the tape and grade it like NFL coaches, Dobbs is actually performing better than Mason Rudolph right now.

In Week 3, he had a higher grade than Big Ben and Rudolph.



In Week 2, he was the highest graded offensive player on the entire team.



And before you think PFF is in love with Dobbs, they didn't have him graded that highly the last 2 preseasons.




I'm guessing that the competition for the #2 job is a lot closer inside the Steelers building than most on this site would like to believe.

 

word is Dobbs is getting the start Thursday...if he plays most of first half...and tomlin surprises us with Devlin in the second half...thats the sign Mason is the backup

 

I'm not Josh. Just a Dobbs fan who is tired of the one sided narrative that has gone on with regard to this competition. I disagree with you when it comes to the eye test. My eye test tells me Dobbs is the far more talented player. He's more athletic and has the far stronger arm. In every preseason game thus far Dobbs has made the best play of the game. Whether its with his arm throwing the deep ball or with his legs running the ball. Outside of that one throw to James Washington last game, Rudolph has not had any memorable plays. Everything with him is a check down or a short pass that the receiver turns into a big play after the catch.

With regard to your last comment, I didn't watch the entire broadcast of the game. Just the end when Dobbs was playing. And I remember hearing Collinsworth saying that neither Rudolph nor Dobbs did enough in the game to win the job and that it could come down to Game 4 of the preseason. He might have given Rudolph praise earlier in the game that I didn't see.

 

Didn't we go through this same song and dance last year? Wasn't everyone convinced Dobbs was the odd man out because he didn't play the 3rd preseason game? Wasn't everyone saying Landry was safe cause he didn't even play in the 4th game? Wasn't everyone convinced that the Steelers were only playing Dobbs in the final preseason game as trade bait?

I think the Steelers brass prefers Mason Rudolph. They invested a higher pick in him the year after they drafted Dobbs so they don't want that pick to look like it was wasted. They want Rudolph to be the guy. However, I also think they know football and see that Dobbs is the guy with the higher upside. He's definitely more inconsistent. He's the type of guy who will look amazing one play then bone-headed the next (as we saw during the Chiefs game). However, a football coach is always gonna think he can coach a super talented guy to become more consistent than he is gonna make a less talented guy better.

 

I'm not surprised either. As fans we're generally pretty stupid when it comes to football played at the highest of levels. (And no, the 4 TDs you scored while at Polk High doesn't make you qualified either.)

Sports, but football coaching in particular, is the only occupation where you can train and work your ass off for 20 years to reach the very top of your profession only to become an idiot, because everyone else knows better.

It's quite funny actually.

 

Regardless who gets #2 if #1 goes down early the Steelers will be #4 in AFC North.

 

Stevie Wonder must be doing the grading over at PFF

 

That's 4 TD's in a single game thank you! That said being a shoe salesman for 30 years makes one stupid to begin with.

 

So it's true ...my eyes actually do lie to me. Well ..OK ..then if Dobbs is really that good & I hear rumors that Indy may be interested ..that's good news for us because I think most of rather stick with Devlin Hodges. I honestly think Cordell Steward was more accurate than Dobbs, & Cordell was not accurate at all. It seem as if the offense always stall with Dobbs at the helm. Can't be trusted with his arm, I think that's why they don't open the playbook for him...

 

Or they could simply value plays like the one Dobbs made in the last game where he evaded pressure coming right in his face by rolling to his left as a right-handed QB and throwing a 15 yard laser on a rope for the first down.

In every preseason game thus far Dobbs has made "WOW" throws. The sort of plays a guy like Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson makes that not many other guys playing the position can make. That is why he's getting these high grades. I think that because you have a rooting interest you are only looking at his mistakes rather than giving him credit for his great plays. Josh has made bone-headed mistakes. That pass in the redzone against the Chiefs being a prime example. Its totally unacceptable for a QB to throw a pick like that in the redzone. However, the throw he made to set up that redzone opportunity is probably the best throw of the preseason by any Steelers QB. It was a perfectly thrown ball 30 yards down the field on a rope where he threw the ball perfectly. Right over the linebacker and under the free safety into the hole in their zone coverage. That sort of pass is the type elite QBs make. And its why Pro Football Focus gave him a high grade for that game despite the bone-headed INT he made the following play.

Mason Rudolph has not made the sort of impressive throws and runs Dobbs has made thus far in the preseason. What has kept this a competition is Dobbs penchant for the bone-headed play which Rudolph has avoided for the most part. In my opinion this competition comes down to which style of player you prefer. Do you want the guy who won't make the big play but also won't make the big mistake? Or do you want the guy who has the talent to make the big plays but will also make some big mistakes? Its honestly a matter of taste. I prefer the QB who is a playmaker that sometimes makes mistakes (ala Brett Favre) than a guy who is not gonna make any big plays but will also avoid the bad mistakes (ala Dak Prescott).

 

He has 0 TD's and 2 picks. Rudolph has 3 TD's and 1 interception. Hodges has 2 TD's and 0 interceptions. How in the world do they have Dobbs rated higher.

 

Football is a team game. PFF does not rate the results of a play. They rate your play. For example, during the first game against Tampa Bay, Dobbs threw a perfect pass to James Washington in the corner of the end zone that should have been a TD if James kept his feet inbounds. The regular stat sheet recorded that play as an incompletion. PFF probably rated that as an excellent play by Dobbs. In the last game Dobbs threw an interception according to the regular stat sheet. However, if you watched the game, you saw that the INT was off a deflection from a Steelers player that popped up in the air and was caught by the defender. PFF probably didn't blame Dobbs too badly for that play.

This the reason coaches "watch tape" rather than just look at the box score after a game to see how players performed. The stat sheet does not tell you everything. To know what really happened in a game, you have to "watch the tape". And that's what PFF does. They hire former NFL coaches. They pay them to watch tape and grade players accordingly. I would suggest watching the games rather than just looking at the box score if you want a full picture of how a player performed.

 

Who the heck is Cordell?

 

All I know is that he played the entire second half and only put 3 points on the board.

 

Steward

 

The one problem I have with your line of reasoning thus far and I don't have a dog in this race, is that while the guy who is currently the starting QB has two SB rings for being a "wow" type play guy that you are talking about while there is this other ahole I can't stand who has 6 rings by taking the check downs and safe throws and letting the receiver make plays.

The only measurable that matters really is which of them can move the offense and score points that put the team in position to win games. Having a couple of laser throws for first downs is meaningless if you don't score.

I don't follow PFF so someone help me out, are the stats skewed by number of opportunities and TOP. I mean Ben had 3 series, MR had about what 3 possessions for 10 and change and Josh Dobbs had an entire half plus change. One would think his numbers would be higher as the sample is bigger no?

 

Current QB ratings for Preseason: With a rating of 55.5 Dobbs may be in jeopardy of not making the team!

 

Not sure what games their watching.

 

55.5 is a terrible QB rating less than half of what Hodges's is, but PFF says that Dobbs sure throws one heck of an incomplete pass.

 

Mason is #2 Devlin is on the PS, and Dobbs is a Colt. You've performed well, Josh and deserve a shot but won't get it here. Good luck in Indianapolis.

 

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.

The statistics are better with Rudolph

 

According to the OP they care less about the success of the play and more about the mechanics and ability demonstrated by the QB.

 

Once again football is a team game. Individual players are rated by what they put on tape. The team is graded by the final score.