Monday Morning Mailbag: Vikings Targeting Quarterback, Justin Jefferson’s Comeback.

After taking a Week 13 bye, the Vikings are back in action, and this week will see a lot of talk about Justin Jefferson’s return. Jefferson missed seven consecutive games due to a hamstring injury.

The receiving group, head coach Kevin O’Connell, the medical staff, and receivers have shown endurance and long play with the current OFTY winner, who should help an offense that faltered heading into the bye week.

The more pressing question surrounding the Vikings is what quarterback O’Connell will decide to play.

Everyone seems to know the team’s status, based on the inbox, but let me give you a quick update.

After facing him in that preseason, Minnesota traded for veteran backup Nick Mullens from Las Vegas, but he hasn’t played since the preseason and only appeared in sporadic games in 2022.

Following his Week 9 concussion in Atlanta, rookie Jaren Hall is back. Mullens was then placed on injured reserve, and a week after Kirk Cousins suffered a season-ending Achilles injury against Green Bay in Week 8, Hall made his first career start.

Joshua Dobbs was signed by the Vikings from Arizona two days after Cousins was hurt, and Dobbs was forced into action when Hall was hurt on the second possession. Following an unlikely victory over the Falcons in his hometown, Dobbs led the Vikings to one of their best halves in recent memory, leading New Orleans 24-3 at the half in Week 10.

But after that, including the last two games that Dobbs started, a run of 33 points in the previous 10 quarters has ensued.

A further complicating factor has been the Vikings’ persistent tendency to give the ball away. The number of turnovers has increased to 24 for the season, or two per game, after seven in the last eight quarters.

Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, if that pace continues, it will mark the 11th time that a Vikings team has averaged two or more turnovers per game. Winning records were achieved by five of the previous Minnesota teams: 8-7-1 in 1978, 11-5 in 1992, 10-6 in 1994, 9-7 in 1996, and 10-6 in 1999. The other five (2001, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2013) each reached their maximum of five or six wins.

The Vikings really could start helping themselves by improving the way they guard the ball, regardless of who is playing.

I’m just hoping that Jaren Hall receives the next start. Dobbs throws the football with zero ball velocity, no sense of ball security, and makes some really bad throw location decisions.

After just one game, Jaren Hall picked up ball security and became an all-around better quarterback. I can no longer stand to watch Dobbs clumsily stumble and fumble. Though he might be intelligent enough to launch a rocket, I don’t think he can guide our team to the postseason.

I asked someone I respect about Dobbs’s opinions—who also happens to watch a lot of Tennessee Volunteers football—when the Vikings acquired him. Initially spoken, the word “beloved.” After that, even when he made mistakes—I’m paraphrasing—it happened very quickly.

We’ve all witnessed some endearing traits as Dobbs established a quick rapport with teammates and coaches, in addition to his charisma and personability that have been demonstrated during his media sessions.

He has shown off his ability to create plays on the fly, but we have also seen him commit errors on an underthrown pass, two deflections, and two fumbles at Denver (one of which happened on an illegal hit). Actually, I believe there was a little too much mustard on one of the interceptions—the one that slid off Jordan Addison’s hands.

Despite the small sample size, Hall appeared to have a very well-organized game on Minnesota’s opening two possessions at Atlanta (demonstrating good development since the preseason matchup with Seattle). Even when he threw the football off-platform, he demonstrated good throwing vision and accuracy.

His play, in my opinion, would have set up the Vikings for a victory over the Falcons, as I stated in an earlier edition.

In my opinion, the Dobbs case is still pending. For a quarterback, switching offensive systems in the middle of the season is extremely challenging when the rest of the team has been practicing and learning them for months.

Dobbs has been most productive when playing outside of the pocket, according to his three or more Purple games. Chicago seemed to be making an effort to bottleneck him, but the Bears didn’t appear to have to make many sacrifices or use a lot of resources to accomplish it.

With less than a minute remaining in the first half, he looked sharp in the two-minute drill before an intentional grounding penalty on a play at the Chicago 13-yard line ended the drive. The Bears managed to get home with just four defenders on a six-man blocking scheme (even if Mattison is included before releasing on his route) despite Minnesota using extra players to block. It appeared like Dobbs could have taken a checkdown to Alexander Mattison for a modest gain that would have allowed Mattison to get the ball out of bounds to stop the clock. However, he held it.

At the line of scrimmage, where plays are called, there appeared to be a lot of vocalization during the game, with players “canning” the first play and switching to the second.

That is undoubtedly a valid point to remember. O’Connell talked a lot last week about how the offensive system’s timing and rhythm are off.

In the end, it’s very doubtful that anyone will possess the rhythm and timing that Cousins was displaying while performing as well as (or better than many in the NFL) at quarterback for the remainder of the season, regardless of who fills the position.

Teams typically use bye weeks to conduct self-scouting, so it will be interesting to watch how the Vikings attempt to rank the highest-level capabilities of each quarterback in relation to what O’Connell and the coaches feel are the best options available in the system.