Josh Rosen – August 22, 2019 (Postgame)
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Thursday, August 22, 2019
Postgame – Jacksonville
QB Josh Rosen
(Maybe not as well as you would have liked to have played, but how do you feel you played in that second half there, especially with that scoring drive?) – “I thought I made a couple of good plays. Still definitely messed up a couple – even two plays that actually were successful plays. I kind of messed up a little bit, but there’s always ways to improve. It was a little more good than bad last week, but my motto has been making the next day better than the previous, and I think today was better than yesterday and last week.”
(In the one play that really stands out, I guess you stepped up, flushed out, just went to your right and I think TE Mike Gesicki you found?) – “Isaiah (Ford).”
(WR Isaiah Ford. What did you see and how did you get to that point?) – “I dropped back in the pocket. Tackle did a really good job of keeping areas high. I stepped up and kind of flushed it a little bit, and I knew Isaiah (Ford) was coming across the field on the concept we have, so I was kind of trying to run it a little bit. I just kind of knew he was back there, and, I found him.”
(Do you feel like your pocket presence has improved over time?) – “Yeah, I think, just as my grasp of the offense increases and I get more comfortable with it, I think that also helps to be more at ease in the pocket because you know where your answers are. Like if one or two isn’t there, you know exactly where your back is or you know where three is. I think that just comes with reps.”
(How do you feel like you’re putting it all together?) – “Pretty good, better, not great. Pretty good, but hopefully tomorrow is better. It will be.”
(Earlier you said that your focus is not on the competition. Two minutes ago Head Coach Brian Flores said that your performance kind of makes his decision more difficult, tougher. Do you feel you achieved your goals for tonight?) – “You’re going to hate my answer, but my goal is to play better than last week, and I think I did that to a small degree, to a degree. The competition, that’s his thing. So questions you ask with him go back and forth between you guys, but for me, I’m just trying to handle my business and trying to make next week better than this week.”
(Are you able to quantify how much you’ve grown since the beginning of camp to where you are now?) – “Yes. With three capital letters, yes.”
(How would you explain that to us as best as you can?) – “This offense puts a lot on the quarterback to make calls in the run game, the protection game, and make a lot of checks and audibles and stuff like that. That can be a bit of a hindrance at first, but as you sort of learn to kind of tackle it and you can start to use those things as an advantage. So I think I just need to get more and more comfortable with that much control and start to use it to your advantage. I think Fitz will tell you he doesn’t have the most gifted physical skill set, but his ability to take that much command of the line of scrimmage and get in the right play and make sure everyone’s lined up in the right spots and running the right routes, I think that’s why he’s been so successful. I’m just trying to add that to my game. I didn’t expect to come in here, but I’m welcoming the challenge and trying to conquer each day.”
(We heard through the broadcast, I guess you’re working through some of your MIKE calls. Where is your comfort level in that particular area?) – “Better than last week. I will tell you, though, that the first team and second team stuff does make a significant difference because there are some fronts out there, the ones, that I’m definitely going to have to ask (Quarterbacks Coach) Jerry (Schuplinski) to break all those down. But it’s on film now, and I’ll try to learn them and master them, so if I ever see them again, I’ll knock them down.”
(The MIKE points thing, you said earlier this preseason, this is the first time you were doing that. At UCLA was the center doing it?) – “Yeah. Most offenses, even in the NFL, I’m pretty sure a good chunk, the center still does it. But it’s not just like the MIKE point and calling out the MIKE because the MIKE could be different on any play. It more has to do with what entails with calling the MIKE. You have to sort of center the run game or the protection game and then organize your receivers on who’s blocking safeties, and you’ve got to understand who can and can’t blitz and where your hots are because, like you have options. If it’s third-and-long or something, you can’t just throw hot because you won’t get the necessary yardage. You’re probably better off trying to shore the thing off and then throw it somewhere else in some deeper routes. So that kind of control, I think, is why Tom and Drew and Philip and Aaron in the toughest of crunch times, third-and-12 in a big game, will walk up to the line, and they know exactly where to go and what to do.”
(Are you getting help from C Daniel Kilgore and C/G Chris Reed?) – “Oh, yeah.”
(You feel like you’re trending upward and you feel good about that. Do you feel that degree of improvement will continue indefinitely as long as you’re continuing to play?) – “Yeah, going to infinity and beyond. (laughter)”
(That’s a pretty exciting idea for you, a month from now you’re that much better.) – “Diminishing marginal returns a little bit. (laughter) So you get a lot of improvement off the bat and as time goes on, maybe a little less over time. But as long as it’s some improvement, I’m good with it because I think constant upward momentum is better than a roller coaster.”
(You had a 99-yard drive tonight. Have you had one of those before?) – “Probably somewhere sometime.”
(It’s pretty rare. What’s it like to have your back literally on the goal line and then get the touchdown.) – “I don’t know. I’ve got 11 dudes trying to tackle me, so it’s more focused on the here and now. I just know we tried to get on a hard count, get them to jump offsides, buy some room. Our running backs made some, definitely swept through some holes there, and it was a team effort. It was a good drive. It wasn’t like a walk off, go-ball that went 70 (yards). It was a drive, which was pretty good to feel as an offense.”
