Why I Want Josh Rosen to Succeed

Miami still has a professional football team? 

That’s what a friend of mine asked me. This was typical of his assholery, knowing that I have been a die hard Dolphins fan since watching John Riggins run over the Miami defense in the aqua and orange’s penultimate Super Bowl.

That’s when I said to myself, “Man, I gotta root for that team!”

Anyway, the question really got my Irish up. And I’m not even remotely Irish nor could I even play one on television. 

As for my friend, he is a suddenly emboldened with the promise of Baker Mayfield and the acquisition of game changer Odell Beckham, Jr. Cleveland Browns fan. I guess never in his 40 years had the brown and orange looked so majestic to him. Wearing the colors outside of Cleveland elicits looks the way a steak house waiter glares at you when you ask for A1 steak sauce for your filet. Or so people tell me.

Anyway, this was a Browns fan! This is a team that has been the gold standard for failure apart from one season thanks to the troika of Derek Anderson, Braylon Edwards and the athlete formerly known as Kellen Winslow, Jr. This is a team whose coach is named Freddie Kitchens. Google him. Has there ever been a more appropriate name? He looks like the “after” picture of a single guy in an Olive Garden “Buy One Take One” ad.

As for my reply? I could only counter with a new coach plucked from the Belichick tree (because we all know how well previous coaches have fared) and the potential of the UCLA edition, not the Arizona Cardinals iteration, of Josh Rosen.

He was terrible last year, my friend would tell me. He would point to Rosen’s 26 QB rating after a quick perusal of Pro Football Reference on his phone.

I would counter that he had a poor team around him. The moment I said it I truly felt like I was bringing a whiffle bat to a gun fight. My friend waved me off dismissively.

I don’t care. I’m on the Josh Rosen bullet train. The Dolphins traded picks to acquire Rosen from the Cardinals, the particulars (a second in 2019 and a fifth in 2020) were the equivalent of swapping your carrot sticks and bottle of water for a bag of Doritos on the trading floor of the cafeteria. It’s a play in investment circles that will either yield a return like Amazon stock or fall precipitously like every crypto currency out there. Regardless, I make that trade and I make it 10 out of 10 times, assuming we don’t already have a quarterback in place. Minds far greater than mine have already made this case and done so with more authority and respectable analysis. I am just needlessly piling on.

What I, as a fan, want to say is that I am actually psyched. I’m psyched more than when we had Daunte Culpepper or even Ryan Tannehill. One came with a decorated resume from throwing to a generational talent and one came as a high, first round draft pick with his own offensive coordinator. I’m psyched because no QB post-Marino has come with so much promise and wonder. Remember Tannehill was a converted WR. Yeah I was WTF-ing at that pick.

By my elementary school math and superficial research, 19 quarterbacks have started for the Dolphins since Dan Marino retired in 1999, give or take a Cleo Lemon or a Tyler Thigpen. I’m not even counting any back-ups.

By contrast, 29 QBs have started for the Browns and this list includes Academy Award winners Johnny Manziel, both McCown Brothers and something called Brandon Weeden.

Setting football aside, from all that I’ve read and all the pods that I’ve listened to (almost exclusively anything Five Reasons) I have gathered that Rosen is not a bad guy, that he has some commendable arm talent, that people really liked him and that there is a belief that he could still be really great. My thirst for a QB to have skills at least in the orbit of Dan Marino is great enough to blind me from the abomination of a season Rosen experienced in 2018. Also, the story of Rosen getting a pretty raw deal in Arizona is what makes me want to root for the guy to succeed. And please note, I’m not a Kyler Murray Believer.

You see, I know what Ryan Fitzpatrick is. He’s FitzMAGIC until the season strikes eight games and he becomes FitzMUGGLE. Had we not traded for Rosen I would be fine with Fitzpatrick starting, knowing that on the horizon were the QBs of 2020: Tua, Fromm, Herbert and whoever 3 Yards Per Carry anoints as the new Easton Stick.

I am of the camp that says throw Rosen in there. And yes, I write this as I refresh my Twitter feed detailing how he’s off, struggling in the red zone and was just intercepted by a guy who likely won’t make the team. I don’t care. Rosen’s draft status and hype are still fresh that I want to see him play and see if this coaching staff can indeed make chicken salad out of chicken bleep, and will have to do so minus the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Jim Caldwell’s departure.

Just play Rosen. He’s had only one season! The regret of What If by not playing him is greater than the pain of What the hell wherein he plays and stinks up the joint. At least in the latter scenario we will know what we have and we will be that much closer to the class of 2020.

First and foremost, I want Josh Rosen to succeed because we need a QB. I want Josh Rosen to succeed because his success would validate this Dolphins management team and elevate them as having the brass pair to make this trade and then the chops to coach the talent out of him. I want Josh Rosen to succeed because the resulting national story would be that the Dolphins are exciting again and not the irrelevant mess of the last God knows for how long. I want Josh Rosen to succeed because I read of the cockiness and confidence and I want a successful QB who can drip with confidence and cockiness similar to a guy we drafted in 1983. I want Josh Rosen to succeed because of that euphoric feeling of discovering something hidden or discarded that turns out to be of tremendous value. Josh Rosen is our afikoman!

Ultimately, I want Josh Rosen to succeed because I fear that this management team will NOT pick one of the decorated 2020 QBs and will instead try to outsmart everyone (or at least show how they’re smarter than everyone) and pick a little known defensive tackle from some small school that I never heard of. In all likelihood, he becomes a Hall Of Famer, a pillar of the community and a Walter Payton Man of the Year recipient. We will likely put him in the ring of honor and retire his number. And despite all of that, the Dolphins will still be average still be irrelevant and will still be looking for a quarterback.

So yes, I want Josh Rosen to succeed.

You can find the author at @ByRamonLo. He also hosts an aviation related podcast. Photo by Tony Capobianco.