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There was a constant murmur leading up to the 2018 NFL Draft. The NFL didn’t like Josh Rosen.
Now, with the draft complete and the Arizona Cardinals landing their unquestioned future at the quarterback position, the floodgates have opened for the anonymous quotes.
We discussed it yesterday after the ESPN anonymous quotes started it, and now Albert Breer of MMQB is bringing the anonymous thunder and it started early:
He’s spoiled, and entitled, and not made for pro football life.
What... He is not made for pro football life because he has a stable and maybe even affluent background?
My buddy Diante Lee said it even better:
You know what’s funny? If you want a good QB, chances are he IS the kid from the gated community. You know how much it costs to go to camps and train and play travel 7-On? White/Black/inbetween.... QB is for those with disposable income. https://t.co/EwIRxDo6SV
— Dee Lee (@DianteLee_) May 3, 2018
People have a hard time conceptualizing how different the culture is for that position. You can make almost anything else if you’ve got the requisite athletic profile. You have to RAISE a QB. Ask high school coaches and college recruiters, they’ll tell you.
— Dee Lee (@DianteLee_) May 3, 2018
@BruceFeldmanCFB has made the “violin prodigy” analogy and it’s on point. Playing QB is not a football move, it’s a lifestyle choice. And the Rosen stuff is indicative of a serious generational gap for how QBs used to be thought of vs the reality of today.
— Dee Lee (@DianteLee_) May 3, 2018
15 years ago, Jalen Hurts’ Dad isn’t threatening “free agency”. Lamar’s momma isn’t giving you the ice grill over her baby. Too much gets invested into these kids to not have their experience very carefully manicured and protected.
— Dee Lee (@DianteLee_) May 3, 2018
That’s the thing, Rosen has been brought up for years, hell potentially a decade, on being an NFL quarterback.
The new Cardinal has been considered the next big thing for longer than most fans have known who Josh Allen or Sam Darnold are, and going back to a time when Baker Mayfield was seen as more gimmicky product of a college spread than NFL prospect.
He was called “Chosen Rosen” or “J Chosen” as a true freshman at UCLA. He is this dynamic talent, yet he isn’t a guy who is rah-rah or even looking to fire up the troops. He is more in the Tom Brady leadership style, he expects the same excellence from his teammates as he tries to get from himself.
Yet, he also wants to know why:
“He’s off-the-charts smart,” said one offensive coach who visited with Rosen. “He’s the most ready to play quickly. And I spent [a lot of time] with him and he was fine. Very sharp, quick-minded. He’ll need to be challenged daily or he’ll get bored. And he’s not overly charismatic, but sufficient there.”
So wait, now asking for reasons, for wanting to grasp a firm understanding means a guy is an ass?
He’s drawn comparison, personalitywise, to Jay Cutler, in his reputation for evaluating coaches, and shutting down those he doesn’t respect intellectually.
Look, there is no doubt that some of the coaches in the NFL, or in college, or in high school, don’t deserve the forum they’ve been given.
Yet, others have earned, through time and effort, every ounce they are given. And still, it doesn’t matter, because I can tell you that there are still coaches who aren’t that smart.
They may work hard, they may give it everything they have, but they may not be overly smart or understand the game in a way that Rosen has been raised to understand the game.
Yet, when Peyton Manning said this, “If you draft me, I promise we’ll win a championship. If you don’t, I promise to come back and kick your ass.” It was about Manning being a competitor who just wanted it more than anyone else.
Maybe Rosen is a bust, who knows, but the stretching people are doing to make him a villain, to make him not seem like he was not a caring person who didn’t have his teammates back was just flatout a lie:
On the other hand you have the kid whom one ex-UCLA coach said was “always wanting to help [teammates]. He was very concerned with guys that didn’t have what he did.
Whatever Josh Rosen did or didn’t do in interviews, it clearly has rubbed those people the wrong way.
Maybe they need to move on.