Josh Rosen, former UCLA quarterback, former Arizona Cardinal first round pick, is now the official starter for the Miami Dolphins. In April, on the second day of the NFL Draft, Rosen was traded to the Dolphins after the Cardinals drafted their current starting quarterback, Kyler Murray, with the number one overall pick. The Dolphins sent the 62nd overall pick of the draft and also a 2020 fifth round pick. After an offseason of uncertainty and starting the first two games behind journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick, Rosen will get his chance to turn his career around this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

Josh Rosen: Starting Quarterback of the Miami Dolphins

This Will Fix/Fuck Everything Up

The Dolphins have begun their season on a historically bad run, losing their first two games by a combined score of 102-10. So far they have traded their starting left tackle Laremy Tunsil and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick for a pair of 2020 first round picks. Both of these players were first round picks themselves, in the 2016 and 2018 NFL Drafts. Talented running back Kenyan Drake is reportedly on the trading block, as well as anyone else that might have value to another team. Unfortunately, since this is a team that might not go .500 in the CFL, the front office is running out of players to send away.

In related news, a report came out that the NFL might investigate the team and how hard they have been tanking. 20 minutes later, give or take, Josh Rosen was announced as the starting quarterback of the Dolphins. Honestly, there is no telling whether this was telling the NFL “ok we’ll try harder” or “fuck you Goodell we’re going into ultra-tank mode now”.

The latter seems more likely, but Rosen could make the Dolphins look better (who am I kidding).

Its Your Time

Before the 2018 NFL Draft, Josh Rosen was Dan Marino reincarnated in my eyes. Dan Marino is the best thrower the NFL has seen. The word that has followed Rosen throughout his career so far is “mechanics”. Dan Marino’s mechanics were beautiful, and Rosen has that same look. Both quarterbacks had their share of college controversy, which is why they dropped in their drafts.

The difference between them is that the first team that Marino went to was the Dolphins, and he stayed with them. He was good enough to keep around from Day 1. Rosen was not. Throughout his rookie year he made poor decisions on the field. Rosen led the NFL in aggressiveness which means he was throwing the ball into tight windows more than any other quarterback. Based on those numbers he threw 21.6% of his passes into windows where the defender was within one yard of the receiver. This did not produce positive results. Instead, he ended up with the second worst NFL completion percentage and threw more interceptions than touchdowns. The Cardinals offense was also last in the NFL, gaining only 3,865 total yards for the entire season. To put that in perspective, 15 quarterbacks threw for more yards than that on their own.

Not all of this is Rosen’s fault. Besides veteran wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and talented all-purpose running back David Johnson, all other players on this team were bad. The offensive line featured ten different starting lineups that season. The coaching was poor as well and Rosen didn’t appear to have much freedom to change the plays at the line of scrimmage. After Kliff Kingsbury was hired as the new Cardinals head coach and rumors began to swirl that Kyler Murray would be drafted to replace Rosen, many hoped Rosen could turn his career around. Rosen-stans believed that with a better team, he might have a better opportunity to reach his potential. Unfortunately, his destination was worse.

Realistic Expectations

The Miami Dolphins are pitiful. Yes this is bold for a Raiders fan like me to state, since we are 2-9 in our last 11 meetings against Miami and we couldn’t beat them last year,  but the statement is true. This team is “1976 expansion team Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0-14” bad. Last year, the team above the Cardinals ranked as the 31st best offense was, yes, the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins led the NFL in dropped passes in 2018. I have no idea where they pulled their new head coach from. This year, they have allowed the most sacks in the NFL after two weeks. In their loss to the New England Patriots they lost more yards due to sacks (44) than they gained running the ball (42). The wide receivers left about a 100 yards on the field in dropped passes and ended up with four catches and 35 yards on 16 targets. Davante Parker, a popular fantasy football sleeper for four years and counting now, caught zero passes on seven targets.

Josh Rosen was given a shit sandwich when he replaced Sam Bradford last year with the Cardinals. This year, the shit in this sandwich is runny, with corn chunks.

Josh Rosen was thrown into the end of the Dolphins Week 1 thrashing by the Baltimore Ravens and threw three passes. He completed one pass for five yards and threw one interception. In the next game, the New England Patriots whipped the Dolphins 43-0 and Rosen got a little more play time. He threw 18 passes, completed 7 for 97 yards and threw another interception.

Not a great start to his new career with the Dolphins.

I don’t expect anything to change. I fear Rosen’s arm will be wasted. This is not all of his fault. He has been put on two of the worst teams in NFL history in back to back years. No one has placed their confidence in him, and it already looks like the Dolphins are attempting to do everything to secure the number one pick in the 2020 NFL Draft in order to replace Rosen. The cards dealt to Rosen are losing hands. I hope that Rosen doesn’t fold, but who would blame him? The best case realistic scenario that I see is Rosen getting traded to a better team before the 2020 NFL season. Then maybe, if his confidence isn’t completely melted by then, he can show the previous two franchises how they messed up.