With the expectation that the Arizona Cardinals would draft Kyler Murray No. 1 overall, questions circled for weeks about the fate of the quarterback the team drafted in the first round just a year ago.
Josh Rosen made 13 starts for the Cardinals last season. Critics will point to the 14 interceptions to 11 touchdowns he compiled last season but it is agreed that the Cardinals themselves were one of the worst teams in the NFL talent wise last year. The Dolphins on the other hand won 7 games last season and have averaged 7.6 across the last three years and will be counting on Rosen to transition into being their franchise quarterback as online sportsbooks update their projections on the Dolphins 2019 season.
Rosen, 22, met with the media on Monday and expressed excitement about the fresh setting he was now entering.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be here,” Rosen said via FOX News. “Very rarely do you get a second chance to make a first impression.”
Rosen said he felt as if he had been drafted for a second time while trying to dispel the pre-2018 NFL Draft talk that the former UCLA quarterback was not a good teammate while in college.
“I didn’t have all my answers as perfectly crafted as I do now,” he said. “I said some things off the cuff, and people misconstrued them. …
“I think I’m a really good teammate. What I’ve tried to do is not say or do anything extra, just kind of be me and keep my head down, and eventually the story will straighten out. I think it has for the most part. Time and consistency are the best medicine to cure the narrative.”
The Cardinals won just three games with Rosen and with the talent pool thin in Miami, whether or not the Dolphins can even pass the five wins that sportsbooks had them pegged for prior to the draft remains to be seen.
Rosen joins Ryan Fitzpatrick on the Dolphins depth chart at quarterback. Despite just seven games in 2018 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Fitzpatrick tossed 17 touchdowns but 11 of those came in the first three weeks of the season. Fitzpatrick and Rosen appear as different as any pairing in the NFL.
A 15-year veteran the now 36-year-old Fitzpatrick has been labeled a journeyman backup by so many pundits that figuring out how he has appeared in 141 career games is a mystery. The normally bearded Fitzpatrick was a seventh round pick for the St. Louis Rams in 2005 and waited 11 weeks on the sidelines before moving from third on the depth chart into game action leading the Rams from a 24–3 halftime deficit to a 33–27 overtime win, throwing for 310 yards and three touchdowns against the Houston Texans.
The Dolphins want the best for Rosen as they are eyeing him to be a franchise quarterback but having a veteran in Fitzpatrick will give them an option should they find that Rosen was not what they had hoped for upon trading for him.
