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Vikings bench Josh Dobbs for another quarterback

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Evan Winter | Last updated Dec 12, 2023 5:24 PM ET

Josh Dobbs was king of the Minnesota Vikings for a couple of weeks, but his run is over as we head into Week 15 of the regular season.

Per NFL Network 's Tom Pelissero, Nick Mullens will start on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Vikings beat the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday and still have a hold on the NFC's sixth seed, but Dobbs was bad. He completed just 43.5% of his passes for 63-yards. He didn't commit any turnovers, but he was sacked five times and the Vikings offense managed to score just three points in the win.

The #Vikings are making a QB change: Nick Mullens will replace Joshua Dobbs as the starter Saturday at Cincinnati, sources tell me and @RapSheet.

Mullens has 17 NFL starts, knows the system and is fully healthy after an IR stint in October. Now he takes over in a playoff race. pic.twitter.com/00XhNrOP1n
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 12, 2023

Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell expressed in confidence about a week ago, but it was clear Dobbs' job was on a week-to-week basis. And that's not entirely through fault of his own - it's more of the Vikings' overall playoff status, than anything. The Vikings simply don't have the margin of error when it comes to poor QB play and like O'Connell said last week, he thinks all three rostered quarterbacks give the team a chance to win.

Whether or not that was coach speak at the time, O'Connell's actions backed up his thoughts/words. For now, at least.

It'll be interesting to see how long Mullens' leash is. He knows the offense and has starting experience in the NFL, but he's also never consistently cracked the starting lineup. He's also going to make his Vikings debut against one of the NFL's best defensive coordinators.

Why didn't the Vikings wait to name a starter?

Every week matters for the Vikings, so their decision to go ahead and reveal the starter for this week is a puzzling one. Forcing the Bengals to prepare for two different quarterbacks definitely affects how an opposing defense prepares throughout the week. Especially if there's a chance all three guys can play.

The Vikings definitely missed out on a big opportunity, here. We'll see how it affects the game on Saturday.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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