Twelve months ago, the Miami Dolphins made a low-risk, high-reward move with their decision to trade for quarterback Josh Rosen from the Arizona Cardinals. The deal, which sent a 2019 2nd-round pick to Arizona after the Dolphins traded back earlier in the round with New Orleans, pretty clearly worked out in Arizona’s favor. Rosen was given three starts in 2019 with the Dolphins and looked to be overwhelmed by the information he was asked to process at the line of scrimmage.
His processing after the snap was slower and his advantages in physical skill over Ryan Fitzpatrick were not given the chance to shine through as a result — ultimately leading to Miami pulling the plug on his experiment as the team’s starter after less than three full games.
Fast forward to today and the Dolphins are on the cusp of another NFL Draft and, presumably, another investment into a young quarterback prospect. And if the Dolphins indeed do target a young quarterback early in the draft, it will effectively spell doom for Rosen once again — twice in two years he’ll have seen his team draft an early quarterback despite his presence on the roster.
What will that mean for Rosen? The most likely outcome is that the Dolphins will hang on to the young quarterback and look to rehab his image and trade value. With added coaching, Rosen may show well in the preseason and reignite the optimism about his potential as a passer. It’s hard to envision Miami getting much for him at this point in time and cutting him loose all together would be a mighty hard pill to swallow for a team that gave up a 2nd-round pick to roll the dice on him just one year ago.
But if a team came calling, the Dolphins would be wise to listen — and NBC Sports’ Peter King has proposed an intriguing option for Rosen.
“I think if I were Jacksonville, I’d offer my fourth-round pick, 116 overall, to Miami to send Josh Rosen up I-95 to be a Gardner Minshew safety net,” wrote King in this week’s “Football Morning In America”.
“Two reasons: As the Washington head coach last year, Jay Gruden was bullish on acquiring Rosen from Arizona; Gruden’s the offensive coordinator for the Jags now. And no matter how confident the Jags are in Minshew, they certainly can’t be positive that he’s the long-term solution at quarterback. There’s no good reason why Jacksonville shouldn’t spend a minimal amount on an insurance policy who’s never had the kind of chance the 10th pick in the draft should have had.”
If Miami could coup an early Day 3 selection to help fill the team’s current void from pick No. 70 to pick No. 141, they should absolutely do it. Especially if that means taking a marginal loss to make a low risk bet on a former top-10 pick at quarterback that didn’t pan out in the team’s favor.