Barring unforeseen circumstances, rookie Josh Rosen will begin his first NFL season on the sidelines as Arizona’s backup quarterback, Bob Baum of the Associated Press reports.
The preseason, though, will be his chance to shine, beginning Saturday night when the Cardinals play at home against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“We want him to play quite a bit and really get into the flow of the game,” coach Steve Wilks said.
Rosen said his two weeks of training camp have “gone really well.”
“I think I’ve gotten better pretty much every day since I’ve gotten here,” the former UCLA star said before Wednesday’ practice.
Sam Bradford is Arizona’s starter but the Cardinals view Rosen as their franchise quarterback of the future. Why else would they have moved up five spots in the draft to pluck him 10th overall?
Asked for specific areas of improvement since he became a pro, Rosen cites “a bunch of things.”
“The most tangible is probably the playbook,” he said. “I feel a lot more comfortable and fluid with it at the line of scrimmage. I’m focusing more and more with what the defense is trying to do to me rather than making sure I get the right snap count and in the right protection.”
He said he’s also picking up “the little things on how to use the double-cadence to try and buy yourself time and get someone offside, just little tricks of the trade I didn’t know when I was in college.”
From the beginning Bradford and Rosen seem to have gotten along well.
“Sam’s actually really good with all those little things,” Rosen said. “He’s a crafty vet and very successful for a lot of different reasons. He might not share every reason with me, but I’ll take advantage of the ones that he does.”
Bradford said Rosen “asks the right questions.”
“He’s hungry for information,” Bradford said. “It seems like he’s always trying to learn something. It doesn’t stop in the meeting rooms. Even at the dinner table he’ll ask me.
“It’s fun to be around someone like that and to hopefully try to be able to help him. I share with him some of the experiences I’ve had, some of the things I’ve learned over the years. Hopefully it can relate to him and can help him in some way.”
Early in camp, Rosen said he was thinking too much.
“I think I’ve gotten a lot better since then and continue to each day,” he said. “The less thinking you can do, the more you can allow yourself to physically do what I’ve been doing since Pop Warner, and play the game I know.”
As a big-name rookie quarterback, Rosen knows his every move will be scrutinized by fans and critics.
“It’s part of the game,” he said. “I stay relatively offline for the most part. The most pressure I feel from anyone is myself. I’m very, very highly self-critical, almost too much at times. There’s no pressure that should be greater than my own.”
There’s no changing his throwing style either, which includes an occasional sidearm toss on a bubble screen.
“It’s not just how hard or far you can throw it,” Rosen said. “It’s being able to change your arm slot and delivery. I think Aaron (Rodgers) is the best at it because sort of like mid-throw, your ability to throw sidearm to fit a quick screen in there or just kind of contort your body to get halfback screens and stuff in there.”
November 14th, 2018 
Matt Loede 
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