The Minnesota Vikings are working through the loss of Kirk Cousins this season by making a trade at the NFL trade deadline to acquire QB Joshua Dobbs from the Arizona Cardinals. Dobbs has already been traded this season from the Cleveland Browns to the Cardinals, and he’ll now look to captain an offense with players like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, and others. What is the fantasy football fallout from this trade?
Fantasy Impact of Joshua Dobbs Trade
Is Joshua Dobbs a Fantasy Football Starter With This Move?
While Dobbs will certainly see an uptick in the talent level around him with this move from Arizona to Minnesota, he’s still not someone worth looking at off of the waiver wire in 1QB formats.
The #Cardinals are trading QB Josh Dobbs to the #Vikings, per @RapSheet.
The vet is in line to replace Kirk Cousins after his season-ending injury. 👀#Skol | #BirdGang
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) October 31, 2023
It will take him a couple of weeks to learn the offense and he’s shown previously throughout his career that he’s not a reliable fantasy option when he is the starting QB for a NFL franchise.
He’s worth rostering in Superflex or 2QB formats, but he would need an incredibly positive matchup down the line to consider him as a streaming option.
What Does This Trade Mean for Justin Jefferson’s Fantasy Ranking?
Unfortunately, the talent difference between Dobbs and Cousins is substantial, which means that we shouldn’t expect the same top-tier production from Jefferson if he returns to the lineup soon.
As Jefferson did not secure a long-term contract extension with the team going into the 2023 NFL season — and he’ll hit free agency in 2025 after playing on the fifth-year option in 2024 — there are now significant questions about whether or not Jefferson rushes his way back in what figures to be a lost season for the Vikings.
If Minnesota was truly looking to compete still this season, there were other options at QB that they could have pursued to signal that they were still battling in the wide open NFC. But Dobbs doesn’t move the needle.
It now may be weeks before we see Jefferson come back — if at all — in 2023. He won’t risk coming back too quickly and injuring himself as he plays for a mega contract. Unfortunately, Jefferson’s rest-of-season ranking does slide down a bit with this move.
What Does This Trade Mean for Jordan Addison’s Fantasy Ranking?
Addison had started to move his way up the rest-of-season WR rankings this year with Jefferson sidelined and Cousins locking onto him as the main option, but all that momentum has now come to a screeching halt.
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With the news that Dobbs will be the starting QB for the Vikings sooner than later, Addison has to move down the rankings into a weekly low-end WR2 with Jefferson out. As soon as Jefferson comes back though, he’s going to move even further down to a low-end WR3 week in and week out that figures to come with a low floor.
Addison’s incredibly talented and he has a bright future ahead of him in the NFL. However, he’s now someone that comes with a ton of risk and uncertainty in fantasy football for the remainder of the year.
What Does This Trade Mean for T.J. Hockenson’s Fantasy Ranking?
The one player whose fantasy outlook didn’t alter all that much as a result of this trade for me is Hockenson. As the option closest to the line of scrimmage on most plays, Dobbs should look to him early and often for the remainder of the season.
We saw Zach Ertz be peppered with targets — 43 in just seven games — with Dobbs as his QB. Hockenson can get into his routes and create separation much quicker than Ertz at this stage of his career, which should only give Dobbs more and more confidence to feature him.
Hockenson’s touchdown upside may have evaporated overnight, but he still should be among the league leaders in targets at the TE position through the remaining nine games.
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