A fourth-round pick of the Steelers in 2017, Joshua Dobbs has been with Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Detroit, Tennessee, Arizona, Minnesota, San Francisco, and now New England.
A fourth-round pick of the Steelers in 2017, Joshua Dobbs has been with Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Detroit, Tennessee, Arizona, Minnesota, San Francisco, and now New England.Ben Pennington/for The Boston Globe
FOXBOROUGH — If you can link just about every major actor or actress back to Kevin Bacon, any self-respecting football fan can probably do something similar with Patriots backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs.
Most everyone in the NFL can either count the 30-year-old as a former teammate or has played with someone who played alongside Dobbs. Even though Dobbs has only been in the league since 2017, the Patriots are his ninth team. A fourth-round pick of the Steelers, he’s been with Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Detroit, Tennessee, Arizona, Minnesota, San Francisco, and now New England. (He’s had multiple stops with the Steelers and Browns.) He’s played with so many teams, he’s a walking Immaculate Grid cheat code.
Along the way, he’s cultivated a reputation as a standout teammate, and someone who’s flexible enough to quickly master any system.
“I was with Dobbs for a little bit in Cleveland,” said Patriots quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant. “I got to know him there. I think just the experience that comes with a guy who’s been in the league for a handful of years for a bunch of different organizations has been great.
“Because he has all these experiences and has been in the league, he’s a good shoulder to lean on for Drake [Maye] as a starting quarterback. If there’s something Drake is seeing for the first time, Dobbs has probably seen 20 times. So now Drake can ask Dobbs how he handled it, and different tools and different things to think about. So I think adding him to the room in that aspect has been great.”
“Dobbs has seen it all. He’s been around forever,” said rookie quarterback Ben Wooldridge. “Really, I’ve learned a ton from Dobbs. Just the little conversations we’ve had about his process. Going into the preseason game last week, it was about his process. How early does he get to the stadium? What does he do before a game? Does he change his routine from practice to the game? How does he prepare for a preseason game? Just picking his brain. I feel bad for him because I ask him about a thousand questions a day.”
Last season, Maye was shepherded through his rookie year with assistance from veteran Jacoby Brissett. While there was some debate on who should be under center, Maye deferred to Brissett to open the year, before eventually taking over as the starter.
This summer, there’s been no doubt as to who will be the starter to open the season. While Dobbs makes it clear that he’s always competitive and will always stay ready, the veteran is going into the season with his eyes wide open.
“Obviously, there has to be a depth chart. And we understand that,” said the 6-foot-3-inch, 220-pounder. “I’ve seen different places and situations. I just really like our room.
“I think each year . . . it’s not that you never know what you’re going to get in a quarterback room. It’s, as you can imagine, quarterbacks are dynamic personalities. Everyone wants to play and be out there on the field. But we have a great room.”
That doesn’t mean Dobbs is content to hold a clipboard. He has been called upon several times over his career to step in for starters, and while he’s never posted overwhelming offensive numbers, more often than not he’s excelled. Two years ago, he was dealt from Arizona to Minnesota, and he led the Vikings to a pair of surprise wins.
Dobbs said the life of a backup is like being a student.
“It’s like you’re in math class every single day,” he said, “and you’re learning algebra. And then every Friday there’s a test. But one week, you don’t take it, the second week you don’t take it, the third week you don’t take it. You can get lulled into that rhythm of being complacent. ‘I’ll never take the test.’ And it’s right when you get comfortable with that, bang, you know you’ve got to ace the test.
“Just always being prepared no matter what the circumstances are, so it’s all about your daily mind-set. If you’re ready to go every single day and you’re confident in your skills and abilities, no matter what happens when you’re put out there, you’ll be able to go out and execute well.”
Dobbs, who finished 5 for 12 for 45 yards and a 2-yard rushing touchdown in the preseason opener, is cognizant enough to understand a sizable portion of his value is his experience. On Monday, Wooldridge recounted a story about Dobbs’s background with Commanders cornerback Bobby Price as part of their approach.
“Going into Washington last week, Josh had played with one of the corners we faced, and knew his ins and outs. Just little things like that,” said Wooldridge. “You can never get enough stuff like that. To be successful, you need stuff like that.”
Josh Dobbs runs around on 4th down and finds the end zone!
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Dobbs — nicknamed “The Passtronaut” because of his past internship at NASA and love of all things air and space — is set to return to Minnesota this week with his new team for a pair of joint practices and a preseason against the Vikings. There are a handful of players on the defensive side who were there when Dobbs was with the Vikings. Don’t be surprised if he drops a little knowledge in quarterback meetings about the Minnesota secondary that ends up being filed away by Maye and/or Wooldridge.
“It’s a process,” Dobbs said. “You just want to focus on one thing each day to kind of hammer out and understand, especially when you go to a new offense. That’s why I think camp is a great opportunity to do that. You get reps, you get good looks. You get some tough looks. And it’s all about managing the offense, making sure the ball is in the right place. It’s been good.”
Christopher Price can be reached at christopher.price@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at christopherprice.bsky.social.