Poor Josh Rosen.
You half wonder whether the reaction of Rosen, when Dolphins coach Brian Flores told him this week he was going to take over for Ryan Fitzpatrick as the starting quarterback Sunday in Dallas, was one of dread or excitement.
Every player wants to play. Every player wants to start. But for this inept Dolphins team, which is in the throes of a blatant “Tank for Tua’’ spiral? That task should come with a Surgeon General’s warning.
Rosen — who becomes the 21st quarterback to start for the Dolphins since Dan Marino retired in 2000; only the Browns (29) and Bears (23) have had more start a game during that span — takes over reins of a Miami team that has been outscored 102-10 in the first two weeks of this season.
He takes over an offense that ranks last in the league and has thrown four interceptions, including two pick-sixes from Fitzpatrick.
Rosen told South Florida reporters in the spring that he hoped this stint with the Dolphins was a “second chance to make a first impression” for him after spending his rookie year with a poor Cardinals team that also did not have a lot of help around him.
Rosen, the 10th-overall pick out of UCLA in the 2018 draft, was traded from Arizona to Miami during this year’s draft for a late second-round pick and 2020 fifth-round pick — after the Cardinals selected Kyler Murray No. 1 overall.
Rosen had a 3-10 record in 13 starts with the Cardinals last season, completing 55 percent of his passes for 2,278 yards, 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
Though his record was poor and his statistics pedestrian, Rosen played behind a bad offensive line and for a coaching staff that lasted only one season in Arizona. He was hardly in a place conducive to developing a young quarterback.
Now he’s in possibly an even worse place, with a team that isn’t even trying to win games this season but instead is trying to secure the No. 1-overall draft pick next year so it can land the top collegiate quarterback.
In other words: Rosen has no chance to be the future in Miami.
Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the likely object of the Dolphins’ desire come draft time, has a brighter future in Miami than Rosen, and he hasn’t even been drafted yet.
Some collegiate quarterbacks are drafted into the NFL to be the centerpiece of that team’s rebuilding process and, in some cases, the face of the franchise — think Sam Darnold with the Jets, Baker Mayfield of the Browns, Deshaun Watson with the Texans, Carson Wentz with the Eagles, Jared Goff with the Rams, Lamar Jackson with the Ravens, Josh Allen with the Bills, Mitchell Trubisky with the Bears and now Murray with the Cardinals. Rosen is in no-man’s land.
Just 22, Rosen has been dealt two really bad hands in less than two NFL seasons. If he was in Vegas, he’d he relegated to the loser’s lounge.
When the journeyman Fitzpatrick was given the Dolphins’ starting job in August, Rosen promised: “I’ll push him every single day for him to get better, and if he doesn’t get better, I’ll hopefully surpass him at some point. It’s only [a matter of] time that this team is mine.”
Well, for better or worse, the team is his now … at least for the next 14 games, after which the team is expected to move in a different direction.
Poor Josh Rosen.