Since the end of the 2019 season, and certainly since the 2020 NFL draft, there has been much speculation about what the Miami Dolphins will do with quarterback Josh Rosen.
An intriguing possibility would be to make him a “quarantine quarterback,” and he would stay away from the rest of the team to ensure his availability in the unfortunate event that the starting quarterback and his backup tested positive for COVID-19 and were unable to to play. .
The idea was raised by Pro Football Talk, which referenced a comment made by Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians on the podcast of former NFL defensive end Chris Long.
The idea would be to quarantine a quarterback who is not overly involved in game preparation but capable enough to enter the lineup and win a game.
That’s where Rosen comes in.
Days before the start of training camp and three weeks before practice begins, there is still some uncertainty about the Dolphins’ starting quarterback, although it’s a good guess to suggest that veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick will get the first snapshots in the opening of the season against New England.
However, the idea is that rookie Tua Tagovailoa will take over when he shows he is ready both physically and mentally because he is clearly the Dolphins’ future as a quarterback.
If Fitzpatrick is the starter at first with no plans to play against Tua, it would still make sense for him to be around the team all week to help his development.
Once Tua takes over, logic says Fitzpatrick would be a great help to him in terms of his preparation for the week of the game.
So in any case, Rosen makes sense as the quarantine quarterback if the Dolphins decide to go that route.
It is quite clear that Rosen’s role with the Dolphins in the future will be limited to that of a backup because otherwise Tua would not have been selected with the fifth overall pick.
Given the uncertainty of 2020 due to the coronavirus, it makes little sense for the Dolphins to simply abandon Rosen or actively seek to change him, unless they receive a great deal, which is unlikely to be due to the numbers he presented in his first two seasons of the NFL.
So keeping him as a third quarterback makes the most sense right now, and Rosen as a QB quarantine is certainly a logical end point.
