Could Rosen Become Quarantine QB?

The idea has been tossed around that some NFL teams would want to keep a quarterback away from the rest of the team to ensure his availability, and the logical candidate for the Miami Dolphins if they go that route would be Josh Rosen

Noah K. Murray-USA Today Sports

Since the end of the 2019 season — and certainly since the 2020 NFL draft — there's been a lot of speculation as to what the Miami Dolphins will do with quarterback Josh Rosen.

An intriguing possibility would be making him a "quarantine quarterback," and he would stay away from the rest of the team to ensure his availability in the unfortunate event the starting quarterback and his backup both tested positive for COVID-19 and became unable to play.

The idea was brought up 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 not too involved in game preparation but capable enough to get in the lineup and win a game.

That's where Rosen comes in.

Days before the start of training camp and three weeks before practices actually begin, there's still some uncertainty as to the Dolphins' starting quarterback, though it's a good guess to suggest veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick will get the first snaps in the season opener against New England.

The thought, though, is that rookie Tua Tagovailoa will take over when he shows he's ready from both a physical and mental standpoint because he's clearly the future of the Dolphins at quarterback.

If Fitzpatrick indeed is the starter at first with no plans to play Tua, it still would make sense for him to be around the team throughout the week to help his development.

Once Tua takes over, logic says that Fitzpatrick would be a great help for him in terms of his game-week preparation.

So in either case Rosen makes sense as the quarantine quarterback if the Dolphins decide to go that route.

It's pretty clear that Rosen's role with the Dolphins moving forward will be limited to that of a backup because Tua otherwise wouldn't have been drafted with the fifth overall selection.

Given the uncertainty of the 2020 because of the coronavirus, it makes little sense for the Dolphins to just dump Rosen or actively look to trade him — unless they get a great offer, which isn't likely given the numbers he put up in his first two NFL seasons.

So keeping him as a third quarterback is what makes the most sense at this point, and Rosen as the quarantine QB certainly is a logical ending point.