The Edmonton Football Team has added former first-round NFL pick, quarterback Josh Rosen to its exclusive negotiation list.
Rosen was selected in the first round, 10th overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2018 NFL draft. The confident six-foot-four, 215-pound passer was upset about being passed over by nine other franchises.
“I was pretty pissed off I fell, I was really angry teams were passing on me. There were nine mistakes made ahead of me, and I will make sure over the next decade or so that they will know that they made a mistake,” Rosen said post-draft.
The Torrance, Calif. native was a five-star recruit coming out of St. John Bosco High School and Rivals ranked him No. 1 overall in his class. He was nicknamed ‘Chosen Rosen’ at UCLA while completing 60.9 percent of his passes for 9,341 yards with 59 touchdowns against 26 interceptions in 30 games for the Bruins.
Rosen has had difficulty replicating his NCAA success in the NFL. He replaced a struggling Sam Bradford as Arizona’s starter during Week 4 of his rookie season. The Cardinals’ signal-caller was under pressure and dealt with an offensive coordinator change midway through the schedule. Rosen completed 55.2 percent of his balls for 2,278 yards, 11 touchdowns versus 14 interceptions, which equaled a 66.7 QB rating. Arizona went 3-10 under Rosen.
To start the 2019 NFL draft, the Cardinals selected quarterback Kyler Murray first overall. Less than 24 hours later, Arizona traded Rosen to the Miami Dolphins for second and fifth-round picks. Last season, Rosen played in six games, starting three, throwing for 567 yards, one touchdown and five interceptions as the Fish finished 5-11.
Near the beginning of the 2020 NFL draft, the Dolphins chose quarterback Tua Tagovailoa fifth overall. After being unable to supplant Tagovailoa or Ryan Fitzpatrick on the depth chart during training camp, Miami waived Rosen and no other NFL team put in a claim for him. However, Tampa Bay inked Rosen to a practice squad contract. He’s currently with the Buccaneers learning from Tom Brady.
Even though there is no CFL season in 2020, Edmonton general manager Brock Sunderland and head coach Scott Milanovich are still searching for ways to improve the team’s talent, especially at the quarterback position behind starter Trevor Harris. The 34-year-old Harris agreed to a contract extension through the 2022 season in January.
Rosen is just 23 years old and has already earned nearly $18 million, which makes it a long shot that he’ll ever come to Canada. However, if Rosen can’t earn more playing time in the NFL, perhaps the three-down league could offer an intriguing chance to rehabilitate his pro football reputation.
