The Arizona Cardinals believed they had a potential franchise quarterback when they traded up to select Josh Rosen with the 10th pick of the 2018 draft. After a rough rookie season and getting traded after the Cardinals selected Kyler Murray first overall in 2019, Rosen is without a team.
According to Adam Schefter, he is being released by the Miami Dolphins.
Perhaps it should not be seen as a surprise cut. The Dolphins reportedly unsuccessfully tried to trade him. Ryan Fitzpatrick is the starting quarterback and Miami selected Tua Tagovailoa with the fifth overall pick in the draft.
Josh Rosen led the Cardinals in passing air yards in 2018 with 1301. See more advanced stats here. QB: Josh Rosen: 21: Rook: 13: 217 for 393, 2,278 yards, 11 td, 14 int, & 23 rushes for 138 yards and 0 td: Arizona Cardinals / 1st / 10th pick / 2018: RB: David Johnson: 27: 3: 16: 258 rushes for 940 yards, 7 td, & 50 catches for 446 yards and 3 td: Arizona Cardinals / 3rd / 86th pick / 2015: WR: Larry Fitzgerald: 35: 14: 16: 69 catches for 734.
Rosen never really had a chance.
He started 13 games as a rookie, going 3-10, passing for 2,278 yards, 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
The Cardinals dealt him to the Dolphins for a 2019 second-round pick and a 2020 fifth-round pick. They used those picks to select Andy Isabella and to acquire Kenyan Drake from the Dolphins midseason in 2019.
Panthers Quarterback
In 2019, He started three games, losing all three. He had 567 passing yards, one touchdown and five interceptions.
He has certainly not performed at a high level, but he has had a very unfortunate career arc so far.
He was on the league’s worst team in 2018 coached by a man who was fired after one season. He had two offensive coordinators in Arizona. Miami was expectedly bad in 2019 and changed coordinators before this season.
Since 2015, he will be on his eighth offensive coordinator and ninth if you include the few weeks he had with Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury.
Cardinals Running Back
Unless he can find stability with a team and develop the way many believed he would, his story will end up being very similar to Matt Leinart, another quarterback the Cardinals drafted 10th overall and saw become a bust in the league.
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With free agency approaching (March 14), we're analyzing the quarterback position on the Arizona Cardinals:
2018 cap hits of top returnees: None
Pending free agents: Drew Stanton, Blaine Gabbert and Matt Barkley
Key stat: When he was healthy, Carson Palmer put up statistics as good as anyone's in the NFL. In 2015, he was an MVP candidate who threw for career highs in yards (4,671) and touchdowns (35). He then threw for 4,233 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2016 but missed the final nine games last year because of a broken arm and retired after the season.
Money matters: Aside from paying Palmer $32.4 million from 2013 to '17, the Cardinals' only real investment in a quarterback was the $8.75 million they paid Stanton. Arizona never paid another quarterback who started for them from 2013 to '17 more than $775,000. Essentially, they didn't invest in the position they needed the most.
Big picture: Recently, the Cardinals haven't done well signing a quarterback in free agency or drafting one. In the past five years, Arizona has drafted one quarterback -- Logan Thomas -- but that experiment failed and Thomas is now a tight end in Buffalo. Since 2013, the Cardinals signed Stanton, Brian Hoyer, Barkley, Ryan Lindley, Gabbert, Zac Dysert, Caleb TerBush, Jeff Matthews, Dennis Dixon, Phillip Sims, Chandler Harnish, Aaron Murray, Jake Coker, Mike Bercovici and Trevor Knight, and only four started for them. Going back more than a decade, however, the Cardinals signed Kurt Warner as a free agent in 2005 and drafted Matt Leinart in the first round in 2006 -- Warner panned out; Leinart did not.
Az Cardinals Quarterback 2018
The game plan: Well, the Cardinals need one, for starters. They don't have a quarterback under contract for the 2018 season, so the plan is to find a starter and his backup(s) for next season. New head coach Steve Wilks has said the Cardinals will be 'very aggressive' in their search for a quarterback, whether it's through free agency, the draft or a trade. It's likely Arizona will sign at least one QB in free agency and possibly draft one, depending on how the board falls. Wilks wouldn't guarantee the Cardinals will have four quarterbacks on their roster by the time they begin offseason workouts April 2, which could be a sign they are planning to draft one later that month.