Dolphins benched Josh Rosen because they’re clueless

The Miami Dolphins have no interest in winning football games, so they benched Josh Rosen in favor of Ryan Fitzpatrick versus the Washington Redskins.

In a game where some team had to win, the Miami Dolphins decided that a quarterback change was necessary to attempt to make sure that wouldn’t happen. Down 17-3 versus the equally inept Washington Redskins, Miami opted to bench its second-year starting quarterback Josh Rosen in favor of the always entertaining Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Rosen had completed 15 of 25 yards for 85 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. At the time of his benching, Rosen had an atrocious yards-per-attempt of 3.4 and a quarterback rating of 32.9. But wasn’t that the point? Wasn’t Miami semi-actively trying to lose this ball game?

Enter FitzMagic who FitzMagically led the Dolphins down the field for the first time all afternoon. Miami would make it 17-10 Redskins after running back Kalen Ballage found most glorious pay dirt on a one-yard run. Fitzpatrick completed three of four passes for 35 yards on his first drive of the game, averaging 8.8 yards per passing attempt and boasting a quarterback rating of 101.0.

Most importantly for the Dolphins, Fitzpatrick didn’t turn the football over and wasn’t hopelessly sacked like Rosen had been all afternoon. Rosen hit the turf five times for a loss of 30 yards against the underrated Washington pass rush. This was not his day and it hasn’t been his day for a very long time in the NFL.

So what does Dolphins head coach Brian Flores benching Rosen against the Redskins at home mean in the grand scheme of things? Well, it could mean a lot of things, but a former first-round pick who can’t beat an equally terrible team at home in the Redskins doesn’t bode well for Rosen’s chances to be the starting quarterback in Miami come 2020.

The Dolphins will be in a position to draft yet another would-be franchise quarterback at the top of the 2020 NFL Draft. Fitzpatrick is an exciting backup quarterback and a solid spot-starter but isn’t a reliable signal-caller anymore. Rosen doesn’t seem to be the answer to the Dolphins’ prayers.

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Benching him might mean that Flores has seen enough and is facing pressure from owner Stephen Ross. The front office may not be trying to win, but Flores and his players are, even if their backs are stacked up against it. But wouldn’t it be something if the Dolphins messed around with Fitzpatrick in this game, somehow come back to beat the Redskins to not earn the No. 1 pick?