Josh Rosen Must Turn Things Around With Dolphins Before It's Too Late

Josh Rosen will almost certainly not be the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins when the 2019 NFL season opens. On Tuesday, Dolphins head coach Brian Flores hinted Rosen just wasn’t ready to play. That could be a huge blow to the UCLA product’s career.

After sending second- and fifth-round picks to the Arizona Cardinalsto acquire Rosen, the Dolphins didn’t land the starter they thought they were getting. Instead, they landed a backup who couldn’t beat out Ryan Fitzpatrick for the job. What does that mean for Rosen’s future? Well, it ain’t good.

Entering the 2018 NFL Draft, Rosen was touted as “the most NFL-ready” of the top quarterbacks available. The Cardinals snagged him with the 10th pick in the first round and thrust him into action in Week 3. The rest of the season was an abject disaster for Rosen, who looked completely lost at the NFL level.

While he certainly didn’t have much help from the roster around him, Rosen was a mess as a rookie. He completed just 55.2 percent of his passes for 2,278 yards, with 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He finished dead last leaguewide in both quarterback rating (66.7) and Total QBR (24.1).

After working with Rosen for a few weeks, new Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury decided the 22-year-old wasn’t going to cut it. Arizona traded Rosen to the Dolphins and selected Kyler Murray with the top pick in the 2019 draft. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for a young quarterback.

Now with the rebuilding Dolphins, most expected Rosen to rise to the occasion and take a firm grasp of the quarterback job. He hasn’t. Instead Fitzpatrick, a mediocre journeyman who has had his moments, has swept in and taken the job while Flores says Rosen isn’t ready. It isn’t all that surprising, since Rosen hasn’t looked all that good in the preseason either.

In 18 months, Rosen has gone from “most NFL ready rookie quarterback” to “not ready.” That’s a steep fall.

Can Rosen turn it around? Sure he can. But there’s clearly something holding him back. In college he showed great natural ability. He’s got great size at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, and he’s clearly a smart kid. But clearly something isn’t right.

Rosen will almost certainly play this season, and likely early in the year. But the fact that he couldn’t beat out Fitzpatrick is fairly stunning given what the Dolphins gave up to get him.