Arizona Cardinals: Evaluating the pros and cons of keeping Josh Rosen
By Avery Duncan
Con: He needs a decent line to succeed
While I am a fan of how Rosen does evade tacklers in the pocket with an innate awareness to sense pressure and take proper steps, he still struggles when under pressure, specifically, when he’s blitzed.
For as smart as Rosen is, he tends to make some questionable decisions when under pressure. Josh Rosen is known as a calm player in the pocket and under pressure, but he isn’t the guy to be consistently looking for his check-downs. Instead, he tends to play hero-ball — often immediately pass it to his first read, even when he’s covered tightly.
His agility, or lack of, is certainly an issue while trying to evade pressure. While his footwork and ability to sense pressure are excellent, he’s not going to be one of the quarterbacks that can avoid pressure just because he’s hard to get. At the 2018 NFL Combine, Rosen ran a 4.92 40-yard-dash and 7.09 three-cone-drill, not numbers that get a check in the naturally agile department.
Again, I’d like to stress that Rosen is a quick-thinking quarterback, but he can be a bit hard-headed at times, which is apparent when he tries to force a sketchy pass to beat a blitz. Combining Rosen’s knack to be the hero with his poor elusiveness doesn’t make for a quarterback that will do well in a bad offensive line.
However, I’d like to point out that when he was kept clean, Rosen performed well, according to Pro Football Focus, he had a solid grade of 80.9 when kept clean. He just hasn’t proved that he can do well with the Arizona Cardinals current situation at offensive line.
Similar to Jared Goff in year two when the Rams added Sean McVay and Andrew Whitworth to the mix the mix, Rosen could thrive with Kingsbury and a revamped online. However, if the Keim fails to add talent to the line, the 2019 season could be a long one for the quarterback dubbed as the ‘Rosen One.’