Here’s a story about a college quarterback who got jilted by 9 teams on draft night. He started to feel feelings and he didn’t like feeling his feelings. So, he naturally makes an ambiguous threat to the 9 teams that passed on him promising “make sure that over the next decade or so, they will know they made a mistake.”
As classically trained dodgeball player White Goodman famously said “NO ONE MAKES ME BLEED MY OWN BLOOD, NOBODY!” Josh Rosen is currently listed as the 3rd string QB on the Arizona Cardinals depth chart and waiting to make those 9 teams pay! Pay with sadness, remorse, and regret! The road to the starting spot isn’t very long for Rosen. He has injury prone Sam Bradford and interception prone Mike Glennon in front of him. See you soon Josh.
This reminds me of a similar story, reminiscent of the 2005 draft. Instead of 5 quarterbacks that were all equally vaunted, in 2005 there were, really, just 2. They had similar numbers, but different personalities. The first quarterback was selected 1st overall. The second, a dopey looking California quarterback, was thought to be a top 5 pick fell to the 24th pick.
Can you imagine how embarrassed Josh Rosen would have been if he had fallen to a mid-20’s pick? Rosen was selected 10th overall and that was enough to set him off. I don’t think he could even have comprehended or kept his cool while waiting until 24th pick or later. I imagine his hair on fire or he can’t hold a glass of water because he can’t stop breaking the cups over stranger’s heads. Seriously though, are Rosen and Aaron Rodgers related somehow?
So, here are the colligate stats compared between Rodgers and Rosen. Rodgers started 2 seasons at California resulting in 5,469 yards, 43 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and a 63.8 completion percentage. Rosen started 3 seasons at UCLA and he finished with 9,340 yards, 59 touchdowns, 26 interceptions and a 60.9 completion percentage. Note Josh Rosen started 3 seasons at UCLA, while Rodgers started 2 seasons at California. So even if you remove Rosen’s 2016 season when he started 6 games due to a shoulder injury. So even removing those 6 games Rosen has more yards (7,425), TD’s (49), and INT’s (21), but has a slightly lower completion percentage at 61.2.
Why did Rosen fall so far? Was is it his brash or sometime abrasive personality? Maybe that’s just the attitude which the media seemed to promote so much? Every coach of Rosen’s from high school to college spoke very highly of him, his personality, attitude, and character. Rosen’s high school coach called Rosen a “unifying force” on the team.
Rosen was accused of “getting bored” easily, but that only started comparisons with Peyton Manning. As for character and leadership. Rosen invited the UCLA walk-ons to his 21st birthday party. That doesn’t sound like much, but to a walk-on athlete that probably earns a lot of respect.
Does Rosen need to be defended because his feelings got hurt? No. He believes in him, his talents, and knows how valuable he could be. He’ll get his chance to defend himself. Will he be as good as his fellow Californian who was a “jilted” draft day quarterback? Time will tell.
