Cardinals committed a crime by leaving Josh Rosen in that game

Josh Rosen was getting the tar beat out of him all night against the Denver Broncos, but Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Walks just allowed it to happen.

What in God’s name are the Cardinals doing? They spent $20 million to sign Sam Bradford, only to bench him in the fourth quarter of a Week 3 game against the Chicago Bears. In came Josh Rosen, and since then, it’s basically been the football equivalent of a massacre.

Rosen has been overmatched and outgunned by his opponents, save the San Francisco 49ers, somehow. On Thursday night, Rosen was beaten to a pulp by the Broncos in a 45-10 laughter in the desert, with the rookie quarterback being sacked an absurd six times while being hit almost every other dropback.

Despite the score being completely out of hand by halftime — if not earlier — Wilks decided that Bradford and his $20 million were perfectly fine chilling on the bench while the future of the franchise got pounded. Of course, on the final offensive play of the game for Arizona, Rosen was hit hard and hobbled off with an apparent foot injury.

There needs to be some harsh criticism and some pointed questions directed towards Wilks for why Rosen was left holding the bag in that blowout. There’s something to be said about getting reps and finishing what you start, but when your rookie quarterback is getting lambasted behind a hideous offensive line that, on more than one occasion, let Von Miller come in untouched off the edge.

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If Bradford or Mike Glennon aren’t going to take a few lumps instead of Rosen, why even keep the former around at that salary? Trade him for a late-round pick to a team that could use him moving forward — the Buffalo Bills say hello — and when mop-up duty calls, and it’s going to call with this team, let Glennon come in and get lit up.

It’s a mess in the desert, and Rosen shouldn’t be paying the largest price.