Kyle Shanahan Explains Why the 49ers Signed Joshua Dobbs

If Brock Purdy goes down for a month, the 49ers still should be able to win with Dobbs.
May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan watches during the 49ers rookie minicamp at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Mandatory Credit: Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports
May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan watches during the 49ers rookie minicamp at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Mandatory Credit: Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports / Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports
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SANTA CLARA -- One of the most intriguing new players on the 49ers is backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs.

He's smart, he's athletic and he seems to fit the 49ers offensive scheme. On Tuesday, head coach Kyle Shanahan explained why the 49ers signed him.

“I was just surprised when the guy gets traded when the preseason is over and I forget what week we saw him, Week Four and just see a guy have that much command of the offense that fast to miss an offseason and stuff, an offense you didn't play on is real tough. Going against him and studying him going into those games and after because he was on Minnesota too, it was cool how he gave his team a chance to win and being new to it and just being able to have totally command of whatever scheme he was doing. When we got to see him in a number of different ones last year and you could see that when given the opportunity, he figured it out, gave his team a chance to win. From a backup guy, that's the first thing that you want is just a chance for a guy to come in and give your team a chance to win. I also think he's got the ability to do a little bit more than that.”

Kyle Shanahan

Dobbs started last season on the Browns, got traded to the Cardinals during the preseason, beat the Cowboys a month later, got traded to the Vikings midseason and went 2-2 with them. Which is impressive, considering Kirk Cousins was 4-4 with the Vikings last season.

So if Brock Purdy goes down for a month, the 49ers still should be able to win with Dobbs.


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Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.