Joshua Dobbs’ electric move in 49ers’ QB2 competition: ‘He’s a player’

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Nothing is officially decided in the 49ers’ backup quarterback competition, but Joshua Dobbs is the candidate who does almost everything.

Dobbs got the first snaps after Brock Purdy in Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints, a week after Brandon Allen got the start in the preseason opener. And all Dobbs did was throw 21 passes in the second quarter, with 12 completions for 133 yards and make several stunning scrambles, ending with 25 rushing yards and a touchdown in a single quarter of very busy game.

Dobbs did all of this without seeming fazed by the pass rush or careless about proper pass progression. He just figured out how to do something good when not much was going well early in the play, including his scintillating release and carry of Saints safety Jordan Howden for a 1-yard rushing TD in the final seconds of the game. the first half.

It’s the Josh Dobbs Show!

He heads into the end zone for a layup @49ers before.

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— NFL (@NFL) August 19, 2024

Was this exactly how Kyle Shanahan wants his QB to play at all times? Not so much. But Dobbs didn’t make any serious mistakes. And when he was good, he was electric. Yes, Shanahan allows (and sometimes even likes) when his QB just goes out and does things.

“He’s a player, man,” Purdy said when asked about Dobbs’ performance. “He makes plays, gets through reads and brings energy, man. He makes plays and guys feed off of him. That’s football. You won’t always be beautiful and pull back and everything will be perfect. You’re going to have to play games outside the schedule and bring some juice to the team and the guys feed off of that.”

Nothing is decided in this race because Shanahan says nothing is decided. And because Allen already has a year of experience with the 49ers and can be trusted to run the offense the way Shanahan likes it. So Allen will likely get his first chance at QB2 in Friday’s exhibition finale in Las Vegas.

But…well…you saw Dobbs lead the 49ers offense (with most of the backups at the time) to three scoring drives in the second quarter en route to a 16-10 win at Levi’s Stadium? Remember his TD run last week in Nashville, Tennessee?

There’s a lot going on here. You don’t have to bother the 49ers’ coaching offices to understand that Dobbs is doing his best to be the first guy to step up if Purdy has to leave a game. Or if he’s out for more games.

“I think it’s a fine line when Dobbs can make a lot of plays with his legs, when you have a true running back, when you can put all the running plays on them,” Shanahan said. “I wouldn’t necessarily put Josh in that category. But he’s a guy that (a defense has to) honor him running those plays. If (a defense) doesn’t honor him like that and you run those plays, you can get really good looks like he did last year in Arizona, things like that.

“Those are things that (49ers QB2 last year) Sam Darnold was capable of as well. You have to have the threat with your legs and stuff. You have to be willing to do it.”

Shanahan said nothing should be read into Dobbs playing ahead of Allen on Sunday — the 49ers always planned to trade the two QBs in the preseason. Additionally, this certainly doesn’t have to be a permanent decision. The 49ers could start the season with Allen as the active QB2 behind Purdy and Dobbs as the emergency QB3, then switch him in later weeks. Or it could go the other way around.

But Dobbs, who started 12 games combined with Arizona and Minnesota last season before signing with the 49ers last spring, likely did enough to ensure the 49ers keep all three QBs on the day discount rather than risk trying to sneak either man. through exemptions.

And very importantly, it wasn’t just about his runs on Sunday.

Earlier on the last drive, Dobbs anticipated the nice route and found rookie Jacob Cowing wide open down the right sideline for a 38-yard gain deep into Saints territory. Taken from Shanahan’s book.

All of that came after the offense completely shut down in three series with Purdy, who was there against most of the Saints’ first-team defense and was without Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams, Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Jauan Jennings , Jordan Mason and Aaron Banks.

Three starting offensive linemen (Colton McKivitz, Jaylon Moore and Jake Brendel) started the game with Purdy and stayed in place of Dobbs, but Dobbs had backup-to-the-backups at receiver, running back and tight end.

“He did a good job, leading us in some scoring drives,” Shanahan said. “I made some plays when there was nothing there. I thought it was similar to last week.”

And if you know how Shanahan evaluates players, especially QBs, that last sentence might be the most important he’s used to describe Dobbs repeating his success. As someone Shanahan could rely on, he will ultimately be Purdy’s backup.

• Purposeful and effective use of mobility to extend plays and create openings when the defense has taken it all? That was the point when the 49ers traded all those draft picks to move up and select Trey Lance in 2021, of course. And it never happened to Lance, at least not during his tenure with the 49ers.

But importantly, this was it minimum Shanahan wanted out of Lance. He turned the team over to Lance in 2022, hoping Lance’s athleticism would help him through the tougher times as he gained experience, learned the offense and (the 49ers hoped) took the offense to another level. But Lance didn’t have as much athleticism as the 49ers imagined. Then he got hurt before he could dive into the scheme, Purdy showed up and suddenly Lance had no future with this franchise.

Flashforward a year, and Dobbs, 29, is a much more refined and athletic version of what the 49ers hoped they’d get from an early version of Lance. With some elements of what they liked about Nick Mullens a while back and what they liked about Darnold last year.

• For the second straight week — and the first two times since he began calling plays as offensive coordinator 16 years ago — Shanahan turned the play-calling duties over to offensive assistant Klay Kubiak on Sunday.

I asked Shanahan on Sunday: Why are you doing this this preseason when you’ve had a ton of talented offensive assistants over the years?

“I like him better than the others,” Shanahan said with a smile. “No, it’s not that. I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while. I can’t really explain why. I think certain years you want to (call the plays in the preseason), especially when you get a feel for a quarterback and you want them to get used to you. I think our quarterback that I’ve been with for two years, so Brock has gotten used to me. … I didn’t feel like I needed to this year. Klay was great at it.”

• Shanahan always treats the week of the second exhibition game as a tipping point in his regular season preparations, and now the 49ers are on the other side. They are still very battered and still have no contract solutions with Aiyuk and Williams. But the Sept. 9 opening is coming quickly. This is when Shanahan starts to clog up the depth chart.

So the countdown is on for rookies Ricky Pearsall (ruled out with a shoulder injury) and Isaac Guerendo (almost out of camp with a hamstring injury, but Shanahan said he could return to practice soon). And things are looking up for Cowing, who missed time with a thigh injury but returned to practice last week, looked good and caught four passes for 51 yards on Sunday and returned two punts for 19 total yards .

And the 49ers’ urgency to get Aiyuk and Williams signed and working out? They’re proven performers, so there’s a little more wiggle room there. But if neither is signed by Friday night, when the 49ers return from Las Vegas, the pressure could become almost unbearable.

(Photo: Kyle Terada / USA Today)