The work Josh Rosen is doing behind the scenes to overcome ‘what went wrong’

This came up last week and I saw that Armando wrote about it the following day. Just wanted to pass along that the team doesn't have Rosen holding a clipboard for nothing.

BY ARMANDO SALGUERO COLUMNIST
NOVEMBER 14, 2019 03:58 PM
What everyone’s seen is the Miami Dolphins take off since Ryan Fitzpatrick retook the starting quarterback job. Fine, so maybe take over isn’t accurate, but the team is playing better and is actually on a two-game winning streak.

And that’s encouraging.

But here’s something more encouraging: The quarterback that could not author the kind of results Fitzpatrick is currently getting didn’t just fade into the shadows and allow himself to be forgotten. Josh Rosen didn’t leave the big stage and simply become an observer with little say in the present and no prospects for the future.
Josh Rosen recognized he failed. And he’s been attacking that failure behind the scenes.
“If bad things happen, everything didn’t go correctly,” Rosen said during a private moment this week. “So you have to figure out what went wrong and fix it. I got a lot of things that I’m fixing and I think I’m learning a lot and fixing a lot of things behind the scenes right now and developing a lot of skills.”

Rosen started three games in late September through mid-October and all three were Dolphins losses. Fitzpatrick regained the starting job at Buffalo on Oct. 20 and will continue to start Sunday, again against the Bills.

And while Fitzpatrick has done the seemingly endless work of preparing for each start, Rosen has begun shadowing Fitzpatrick. He’s learning from Fitzpatrick to a degree that he probably didn’t attempt previously.

Because Rosen needs more than to improve on the physical aspects of playing quarterback. He seems quite gifted in that area. He needs to improve on the way he studies, the way he watches film, the way he plans and prepares for specific defenses and their coordinators.

And he’s doing that.

“I’ve made a lot of drastic improvements since I stopped starting, just by watching Fitz prepare for a game,” Rosen said. “I’m shadowing his schedule and seeing how he functions and what I can do for myself and getting a lot better at studying and watching film and anticipating where the ball is going.”

It’s a fascinating process that begins in the quarterback room but does not end there. The Dolphins carry the process to the field where Fitzpatrick gets most of the practice repetitions to prepare for the next game, but Rosen gets challenged as part of his prep work for that game and the future.

“We ask him after every snap, ‘Hey, what was the coverage?’ and ‘Did you think you went into the right place with the ball?’ Things of that nature,” coach Brian Flores said. “So he’s constantly being evaluated, constantly being asked questions. We do a lot with him.

“We time every one of his throws, make sure he’s getting it out quickly enough; so there’s a lot of things that are happening in practice that are helping his development, I would say. I think he’s taken to it and he’s getting better.”

Rosen doesn’t let the work end at practice. He takes it to the game, as well, even though he’s generally not playing.

“So I’m standing on the sideline and I’m trying to play the game from the sideline,” he said. “I’m trying to guess where the ball is going to go. And each game I’m getting a little better and better and the ball’s going where I think Fitz is actually going to throw the ball.

“So it’s basically banking information for later on because I’m going to see these coordinators in the future. I’m going to see these players in the future. And even now, the second time we’re playing the Bills, I understand them that much better than the first time.”

So much of playing quarterback in the NFL is a product of experience. And it’s easy to forget Fitzpatrick is in his 15th NFL season and Rosen is in his second.

But it’s a great situation for the Dolphins that the young quarterback is eagerly using the veteran as a resource. That could pay dividends for years to come.

Fitzpatrick, to his credit, is welcoming to his younger teammate, letting him absorb what playing the position entails.

“Yeah, he’s always here before 6 o’clock and he’s always here late when we’re watching film and whatever else,” Fitzpatrick said of Rosen. “Josh is putting in the time and I think right now, too, he’s doing a lot of listening and a lot of observing and I think that’s really important at this point.

“He wants to be in here. He wants to learn. He wants to do all the right things. The longer you do that and really dive into it, the better you’re going to get.”

Rosen is confident this work, that no one outside the Dolphins organization sees, is going to eventually benefit him in full view of teammates, coaches and fans. So I ask if he believes he can start games later this year and let us see him succeed?

“The start part isn’t up to me, but the succeed part, yes,” Rosen said. “I will always continue to grow as a football player because it’s a very interesting game, particularly this year when I’ve had to learn Mike points and fronts and run-game and watch how Fitz functions and all the moving parts.

“There’s just so many levels to it, and I didn’t really realize that, honestly, until relatively recently. And it’s kind of cool to be able to dive into those different levels as I watch Fitz play and how he functions.”

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article237362129.html



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