Dolphins keeping their options with Josh Rosen

The Miami Dolphins have given Josh Rosen a new chance, but the team is keeping its options open for the future.

Tanking is a four-letter word in sports, but it’s pretty clear the Miami Dolphins will be fine with losing games in 2019 as they embrace a full reset. With an eye on the future, they acquired Josh Rosen from the Arizona Cardinals for the 62nd pick in this year’s draft and a 2020 fifth-rounder on the second night of last week’s draft.

Rosen was a top-10 pick in 2018, entered a bad situation with the Cardinals and his numbers suffered (11 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, 55.2 percent completion rate). The situation might not be any better in Miami, and Rosen will be competing for the starting job with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

The Cardinals drafted Kyler Murray, and pushed Rosen aside. The idea it would happen to him again, with a second team, in 2020 seems far-fetched. But Dolphins general manager Chris Grier, via Albert Breer of The MMQB/SI.com, is keeping all options open at this point.

"Every team in the league is looking for that guy that’s going to lead them to championships,” “And so for us, we’re in a position where we’re trying to find that guy, like a lot of teams in the league. So yeah, it was an easy decision. And it doesn’t stop us from doing anything in the future. Who knows? If things go well and we feel he’s the guy, who knows? But it doesn’t stop us from doing anything."

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is atop every early ranking of next year’s NFL draft prospects, followed fairly closely by Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert. So a pick in the top-five, which they seem set to earn, would put the Dolphins in position to take one of them and make him their quarterback of the future.

But whenever Rosen takes the field for the Dolphins during the 2019 season, and it should be a matter of when, not if, he will have an opportunity to assert himself as the team’s quarterback going forward.

We’re obviously nearly a year out from the 2020 draft (when they’ll have 11 picks), and they haven’t seen Rosen in the context of their team (for better or worse). So the Dolphins should make no firm commitment to Rosen, or most any other player for that matter, right now.