Josh Rosen – December 20, 2019
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Friday, December 20, 2019
QB Josh Rosen
(On this year.) – “I’ve learned a lot. It’s really cool getting to learn a lot sitting behind ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick). I’ve just got to finish out the year strong and address the offseason and whatnot when it comes in a week and a half or two weeks.”
(I know you probably had different expectations for this year, for last year – when you look at your two years up to this point, is there a way that you would’ve liked it to go ideally different than it has so far?) – “No, I mean sort of having wishful thinking is very counterproductive. I try not to really have any expectations and then you’ll never be disappointed; so I have my long-term goals and what I want to accomplish throughout the course of my career and how I get there is at least for the moment now, kind of irrelevant.”
(There are a lot of fans who have clamored for you to play the next couple weeks. Is that something you’re aware of at all that a lot of Dolphins fans have sort of clamored for you to play? Have you even noticed that?) – “No.”
(And is there disappointment at all that you’re not going to be playing at least Sunday?) – “No. I mean ‘Fitz’ hasn’t done anything to lose the starting position thus far, so I don’t see why anything would change. I obviously would love to play if (Head) Coach (Brian Flores) called me up; but that’s not my decision and I think ‘Fitz’ has been doing a hell of a job considering all of the circumstances that have been going on this year.”
(How do you think your chances to still be a long-term starting quarterback have been impacted by your first two seasons in the NFL?) – “I don’t think they have.”
(You still think that’s something that you strive for, you think you can do that?) – “Yeah.”
(Do you feel good at all about the fact that you’re probably going to get a fresh start and a new opportunity in OTAs? I’m sure there’ll be an open competition. Is that what your anticipation is? Does that give you any feeling of encouragement?) – “I’m very encouraged just in general, day-to-day, with how I’ve developed, getting to watch how ‘Fitz’ does his thing. I’m still only 22 years old. It’s not really like the windows opens and closes like that, but there is a sense of sort of understanding timing and opportunity. I’m aware of it, but like I said, it’s all for you guys more to write about than it is for me to worry about. Opportunities will come and I’ll try to seize them when they do.”
(How do you keep this perspective?) – “I don’t know. I don’t have another one, so it’s kind of the perspective that I have.”
(Has General Manager Chris Grier given you any encouragement?) – “No. I mean the front office is the front office. They don’t often communicate. We’ll have conversations just about stuff. His kid just got into Harvard, so I think ‘Fitz’ is trying to – a couple of guys – are trying to convince him to go there, but nothing in particulary.”
(Do you want to be on the Dolphins roster next season?) – “Yeah, absolutely. I like it here a lot.”
(Do you think an offseason would benefit you and if so, in what ways? A full offseason here?) – “Like the offseason program here?”
(Yes, the offseason program here and I guess getting the full offseason in one place and not have to worry about starting over, being traded, that sort of thing that you had last year.) – “I think a lot of it has to do with sort of what I’ve had to learn this year with regards to defenses and Mike’ing a bunch of stuff and this sort of sense of command you need in this offense in order to run it. I think that helps me, sort of just in general, moving forward, with regards to being able to not worry about – basically there’s a really steep learning curve, and I’m really glad I got over it because I’ll have that knowledge in the back of my head for the rest of my career. So now moving forward, I understand the fronts and the coverages a lot better now, so I can sort of focus on knocking down the offense and have sort of that information sitting back there.”
(How would you describe sort of the effectiveness of communication that you’ve received from the coaches and the other folks in the administration from the day you’ve gotten here to now? To you, the communication relative to where you stand, exactly what they want to see you do to improve, things like that?) – “Nothing out of the ordinary, in particular. They’re pretty good with telling me where they want me to develop and what they think I’m good at, what I’m bad at, what I can improve in, just sort of all the general stuff. I think Coach Flores is a pretty specific coach, so he’s good in that regard; but with regards to positionally and roster stuff, nothing really. I didn’t really expect anything because that’d be kind of abnormal to address that stuff like that.”
(I know we talked a little bit about next year. Do you expect to be given a chance to compete for the starting job next year? Would that be your expectation?) – “Like I said, if you have no expectations, you’ll never be disappointed in life. That’d be awesome, and I hope it works out that way, but I’m not expecting anything.”
(When you think about some of the things that people mentioned as improvement and I guess leadership comes up and intangibles and communication, what do you think about that sort of aspect of your game and whether that’s something you feel like you need to improve?) – “I think a lot of that stuff just comes naturally with comfortability, with the guys in the locker room, the offense, sort of a couple seconds instead of thinking about ‘what do I have’ or ‘who do I have here,’ you can worry about something else or substitution or encouraging guys or this, that, whatever. Even just with walking around the building and knowing the names of the cafeteria staff and ‘Hubie,’ the janitor walking around, just getting comfortable with where you are and just kind of making it your home and getting comfortable with your people and your family. I think that’s just sort of – as that has happened, a lot of the leadership qualities I pride myself on started to come through because I don’t really think you can step out and lead if you don’t really know what you’re doing first, so I think I’m at that point where I’m pretty confident in my abilities and where I am.”
