Rosen comes to Arizona, wants to show how much he loves game
TEMPE, Ariz. -- He has a close connection with Aaron Rodgers and wants a "Star Trek mind-meld" with his new offensive coordinator Mike McCoy. He's still ticked that three quarterbacks were drafted ahead of him.
Josh Rosen was introduced at a news conference Friday at Arizona Cardinals headquarters.
It's heady stuff, he acknowledged, being anointed a team's franchise quarterback of the future.
"It's pretty daunting," Rosen said. "The biggest thing is knowing that I have careers on my back. I have families, I have kids, and if I don't play well and I don't pan out, people have to get new jobs. People get fired and things happen, so you've got a lot on your shoulders."
The biggest misperception he'd like to clear up, he said, is that he lacks sufficient love for the game.
"I thought I should have been picked at 1, 2 or 3. I dropped and I was pissed. I was really, really angry." QB Josh Rosen joins the @AZCardinals motivated. #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/nosiNsUEHr
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) April 27, 2018
"Throughout the scouting process, you had to come up with answers to try and convince people you love the game and stuff," he said. "I'm lucky now. I got picked. I can just show people. I can just come to work each day and show people over time. I don't have to answer. I can actually just produce the proof in the pudding."
The UCLA star somehow slipped to 10th in the draft. The Cardinals traded up five spots to get him at the quite reasonable price of Arizona's No. 15 pick in the first round as well as a third- and fifth-round selection. He said Thursday night that he didn't know and didn't care why he slipped and was the fourth quarterback chosen.
"I was a little emotional last night," Rosen said. "I would actually say that I'm not as angry that there were nine guys (chosen) ahead of me, just the three quarterbacks. That's kind of what gets to me. So, there were three big mistakes ahead of me."
But he said he now sees it as a lucky break.
"This is an unbelievable team that I think is really, really primed and set to do some incredible things in the future," Rosen said, "and I think I just, very simply, lucked out."
"Arizona, I would say, won the first day of the draft. ... (Rosen) will win the starting job in Arizona." -- @ColinCowherd
(via @TheHerd) pic.twitter.com/unSdk42tzj
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) April 27, 2018
He will wear his usual No. 3, the same as his predecessor, the now-retired Carson Palmer.
Rosen will start out as backup to Sam Bradford and maybe Mike Glennon. It will be his first experience as a reserve.
"My goals for the year are to accomplish whatever coach McCoy sets out for me as a quarterback," he said. "Whatever he wants me to do, it's team first. ... I'm going to compete my butt off every single day, but then again, I'm not going to be the guy that comes in and thinks he's the man from Day 1. It's a long process, and you've got to earn it."
Rosen said he's learning a lot from Rodgers.
The two got to know each other because they're represented by the same agency. Rodgers is executive producer of a video that featured rookies under contract to the agency preparing for the draft.
"It was really cool when he came down and mentored me a little bit," Rosen said. "The relationship actually went a lot further than I thought it would initially. I thought we were just kind of going to hang out for the cameras a little bit and talk and try to make it look more than it was. But he has reached out to me a lot. He has been awesome."
As Rosen explained it, "I think the best word to describe him, and what I try to emulate is, he's a `dude.' He's just the dude. When he's walking around the building or whatever he's doing, you just know he's that guy. When he steps into the huddle at a critical moment in a late-game (situation) at the end of the year, you know that he's stepping into that huddle and he's telling his guys he's going to go down and score a touchdown and that they're all going to believe him, because he's that dude."
Rosen wants to be that dude, too.
