So much for a potential trade of Miami Dolphins quarterback Josh Rosen. The news broke earlier this week that the Dolphins were fielding offers for the third-year quarterback — raising speculation that the former top-10 overall pick may soon be on the move. Josh Rosen is indeed on the move, but there will be no trade and no assets changing hands. ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that the Dolphins will be outright releasing Rosen.
Surprise cut: Dolphins are releasing QB Josh Rosen, source tells ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 5, 2020
The decision to release Rosen outright is certainly a surprise, especially given the questionable durability of rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to this point. Tagovailoa, who has not taken a single snap with the Dolphins in a live game setting other than in a controlled scrimmage, dislocated his hip in November of 2019 as the latest in a string of collegiate injuries that seemed to build a sturdy case for the Dolphins to keep Rosen on their roster this season as a viable insurance policy.
That won’t be the play for Miami, however.
It is clear that the Dolphins, throughout the past year and change of working with Rosen, have seen enough to feel as though he’s never going to clear the hurdles they need to in order to be an effective quarterback. It is a disappointing turn of events for Miami, who had to have hoped that they could get some semblance of a return on the investment they made in Rosen back in 2019 when they traded a 2nd-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals to acquire him. But with no apparent market for Rosen, thanks in part to no preseason showcase this summer, the Dolphins apparently would rather just be done with the third-year quarterback all together than try to hold out hope that the light bulb finally comes on for the quarterback.
Rosen will now look for his third NFL franchise in as many seasons. And the Dolphins will move ahead with the quarterback duo of Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa, leaving fewer reps to share between the quarterback room in practice. Perhaps those developmental reps for Tagovailoa will prove to be more valuable to the team than the cheap presence of Rosen as an insurance policy in the quarterback room. Time will tell.