Arizona’s officially Kyler Murray’s team now.
Josh Rosen was the Cardinals’ first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. He lasted barely one year in Arizona.
The second-year passer was traded Friday, ending his tenure in the desert after one season and three wins as a starter with the Cardinals. He’ll now compete with Ryan Fitzpatrick for the chance to lead the Miami Dolphins once more into the breach of the AFC East. Miami shipped back a second-round pick — 62nd overall — and a 2020 fifth-rounder for the opportunity to kick the tires on a player who was a top 10 pick one year ago.
It’s a disappointing return that suggests the Cardinals may have waited too long to move Rosen while attempting to obfuscate who they were actually going to take No. 1 overall Thursday night. Arizona reportedly didn’t begin earnestly trying to trade their incumbent quarterback until it had already drafted Kyler Murray, effectively torpedoing the club’s goal of securing a first-round pick in return.
Cardinals GM Steve Keim didn’t start taking calls and texts on a Josh Rosen trade until minutes before the draft started, per sources, and Rosen’s value diminished with every pick. As a result, nobody came close to offering the 1st round pick the Cardinals were seeking. https://t.co/wjPZ04t77u
— Robert Klemko (@RobertKlemko) April 26, 2019
Rosen’s departure signals the end of a brief tryout in Arizona — and lets first-year head coach Kliff Kingsbury start fresh with the quarterback he once fawned over as a rival Big 12 coach at Texas Tech. Murray was the first pick of the first round, giving Arizona a reigning Heisman Trophy winner to build around as it navigates an overarching rebuild.
What does this mean for the Cardinals?
This clears the deck for Kingsbury to make Murray his undisputed starting quarterback in 2019, completing the next step in Arizona’s rebuild after a 3-13 collapse. Murray, a dual-threat star at Oklahoma would give the rookie head coach a spiritual successor to Patrick Mahomes, who he coached for three seasons in Lubbock. While Rosen showed flashes of potential behind a cheesecloth offensive line last fall, his posted some of the worst raw numbers — a 55.2 percent completion rate, 5.8 yards per pass, and an 11:14 TD:INT ratio — in the NFL.
Murray has a low bar to clear to improve on those numbers, and moving Rosen also means adding more draft assets to a talent-starved team. A deficient group of blockers and lack of skill players doomed Arizona to the league’s worst offense in 2018, making it borderline unwatchable in the process. While Larry Fitzgerald will return for his 16th year as a pro and tailback David Johnson is due for a rebound, Kingsbury will need a deluge of dynamic athletes to bring his offensive vision to life.
With the 62nd overall pick, the Cardinals selected Andy Isabella, a prolific wideout at UMass who can burn up the turf in Kingsbury’s air raid offense. He’ll give Murray another high-octane target who can take some pressure from Larry Fitzgerald’s shoulders.
What does this mean for the Dolphins?
Rosen had an undeniably awful debut season, but hidden within the single-digit scoring performances and blowout losses were scraps of evidence he’d live up to his billing as an early first round pick.
— Adam Stites (@AdamStites_) March 4, 2019
For the cost of a mid-second round pick, Miami acquired a quarterback who looks like a prototypical franchise passer. Rosen rated out as an “instant starter” at the 2018 FNL Combine.
Josh Rosen’s footwork and mechanics make him as pretty a quarterback as you will find in this year’s draft. The biggest concern with Rosen is that his on-field success requires many elements to stay on schedule. He lacks plus arm strength, so identifying coverage (pre- and post-snap) and throwing with anticipation takes on added importance. Rosen has the pocket poise, accuracy and intelligence to become a good NFL starter, but he needs to be willing to take what defenses give him more frequently. Rosen will need to quell concerns surrounding leadership and coachability early on in order to establish a strong first impression and get his career off on the right foot.
This is a boon for a Dolphins team whose quarterback depth chart currently looks like this:
Fitzpatrick’s 2018 showed he’s still got some gas in the tank, but he’s no long-term option. Falk and Rudock are significantly younger, but have limited ceilings. Rosen, on the other hand, is 22 years old and was one of the draft’s most coveted prospects only a year ago. While he’s somehow been packaged off into another rebuilding situation — his 2019 supporting cast may be just as hopeless as his 2018 one — there’s still plenty of time for him to live up to his potential.
This is also a dirt-cheap move cap-wise for the Dolphins, who will likely be looking to make a splash in free agency next spring to kick off the next phase of their rebuild.
Assuming the deal gets done, the #Cardinals will take on $8.16M of dead cap to trade QB Josh Rosen to the #Dolphins, who will take on cap hits & salaries of $1.28M, $2.08M, & $2.88M thru 2021.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) April 26, 2019
Arizona stands to lose $4.16M of 2019 cap space per this move.
So if Rosen doesn’t work out, they can always draft or acquire a quarterback in 2020 or 2021 without sacrificing much.
What does this mean for Rosen?
While this can’t be great for Rosen’s self esteem, escaping the gravity of Arizona’s offensive black hole stands to be a net positive for the second-year passer. He played behind the league’s worst-rated offensive line as a rookie and was sacked on more than 10 percent of his dropbacks as a result.
A reminder of who was playing offensive line in front of Josh Rosen over the second half of last season (100 snaps or more): pic.twitter.com/59fJi27MYc
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) March 4, 2019
That’s a pretty steep learning curve for a first-year quarterback, and his departure from Glendale will give him a greater opportunity to fulfill the potential that made him a top-10 draft pick. The Dolphins won’t give him too much of an upgrade up front after losing starters Ja’Wuan James and Ted Larsen in free agency, but the Kenny Stills-Albert Wilson-DeVante Parker combination gives Rosen some useful — if inconsistent — targets downfield.
The Dolphins don’t need Rosen to be great or even all that good in 2019, which is slated to be a very bad year no matter who is throwing passes. They do need him to show more flashes of competence as they determine their quarterback rotation going forward. Adding Rosen gives Miami a viable option behind center at a limited cost. Now he’s got one year to keep the Dolphins from doing what the Cardinals just did to him.
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