When Josh Dobbs looked into the left flat and saw no one but a wide-open Brock Wright, he thought to himself, “Where’s the corner?”
A split second later, he found out.
“He’s in my chest,” Dobbs said. “So yeah, it’s part of football and I think it’s how you respond.”
Dobbs responded well to adversity in his second game with the Detroit Lions, running for one touchdown and leading another scoring drive in the second half as the Lions beat the Washington Commanders, 17-13, in exhibition play at Ford Field on Saturday, Aug. 22.
Starting at quarterback in place of Jared Goff as the Lions rested several key starters on both sides of the ball, Dobbs’ home debut got off to a rocky
start Saturday: He turned the ball over on his first two possessions.
He fumbled on the second play from scrimmage when former Lions cornerback Amik Robertson surprised him with a corner blitz – the Commanders recovered the fumble in the end zone for their only touchdown – and he threw an interception six plays later, on the Lions’ second drive of the game.
But on their third drive the 31-year-old broke a 50-yard touchdown run on an option keeper; he then finished the game 7-for-12 passing for 74 yards to inch closer to locking up the No. 2 quarterback job.
Undrafted rookie Luke Altmyer was 9-for-13 for 86 yards. He took four sacks but did not turn the ball over and led one field-goal drive in the fourth quarter.
“I thought there was highs and lows” from the quarterbacks, Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “Certainly, you don’t want to start the game the way we did. Now, that’s not all on him. We didn’t pick up the protection the way we should, and so he gets hit there. But he got out of it. And I thought that run was big. That’s something that he is capable of.”
Dobbs signed with the Lions officially on Aug. 10, a day after Teddy Bridgewater retired, played sparingly in last week’s preseason opener against the Cincinnati Bengals and worked mostly behind Altmyer with the third-team offense in the few reps he had in practice this week.
Campbell said the No. 2 quarterback job is still up for grabs, though Dobbs, with six seasons of NFL experience, has been Goff’s presumptive backup since he returned to town.
Dobbs played briefly for the Lions in 2022 and has had two stints under first-year Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing (with the Cleveland Browns in 2022 and Arizona Cardinals in 2023). Also, the Lions have long favored having a veteran behind Goff in their quarterback room.
Certainly, other contenders have better backup situations. Dobbs is 3-12 in his career as a starter.
But Dobbs showed enough poise and playmaking ability in his five series Saturday to think he can do the same if Goff needs a temporary fill-in this fall.
Dobbs played the first and third quarters Saturday and might have led three touchdown drives if Tay Martin hadn’t dropped a third-and-11 pass near midfield midway on the Lions’ first possession of the second half.
“Just from afar and the past years playing the Lions, it’s been an extremely gritty team that fights till the end of the game,” Dobbs said. “And so, for me especially coming in, first impression, first game, you want it to go perfect. And as you said, it just doesn’t happen in this league, they’re really good, too. But to be able to respond and make plays, I thought it was good for myself but also good for the team. Coming to sideline, everyone just giving me a slap on the back, supportive, and excited to go out there. I think that’s really what resonated well with me and it was good to be able to harness the momentum, still make plays down the stretch and pick myself up and go out there and keep competing.”
Altmyer did some good things, too; he’s just young and inexperienced and hasn’t done enough yet to prove he can shepherd the Lions through tough times in the regular season if they need a backup.
On Saturday, he bought time with his feet on a fourth-and-3 conversion to complete a pass to Jackson Meeks on the game-clinching field goal drive, and he showed good awareness getting his receivers lined up in the right spots on multiple plays from scrimmage.
Campbell was complimentary of Altmyer after the game, saying the undrafted rookie out of Illinois “sees the field really well.”
“There’s just a couple of things that got on him and it’s always going to be about, for him is, man, just playing a little bit faster,” Campbell said. “I know he can play faster, he just needs reps. And the more reps he gets, the better he is. It wasn’t perfect, but I thought both of those guys did some good things, and there’s some things to clean up.”
[ Watch our Lions-Commanders live reactions show and look ahead to the regular season. ]
Altmyer has one more chance next week to play his way onto the 53-man roster, when the Lions visit the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 29 (1 p.m., WJBK-TV). The Lions have not kept three quarterbacks traditionally, but they may find room for Altmyer if they fear losing him on waivers.
Even if he goes the practice squad route, Altmyer has done enough to this point to prove he’s worth developing.
Dobbs said the rookie has impressed him with his calmness operating an offense he’s still getting familiar with, and Altmyer spoke like a veteran after Saturday’s game, saying he wants coaches to push him to get better as fast as possible.
“I'm so young, man,” Altmyer said. “I'm so young in this league. I'm young as a player and I like to be coached, man. I need to be coached hard. I need to be. And so yeah, each play there's something to learn on. Kind of the mechanics and operation, my feet, my drop, seeing the field and playing together as a unit. So yeah, get better. That's the goal. The goal is not to achieve some result. The goal is to get better every single day.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Josh Dobbs overcomes 2 turnovers to state case as Lions backup QB
