Josh Rosen came out of UCLA with some wondering whether his sometimes poor body language and apparent apathetic approach would be a problem at the NFL level.
On Tuesday, Rosen got a chance to work with the Dolphins’ first-team offense and had an up-and-down afternoon during joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Afterward, however, he drew criticism from head coach Brian Flores about that old issue — body language.
“I thought he practiced OK,” Brian Flores said, per the Miami Herald. I “think he’s got to do a better job of getting guys in and out of the huddle, his communication, body language. There were some plays there he didn’t like and we’ve just got to move on to the next play. That’s the case for him and all the quarterbacks at that position. It’s part of the evaluation as well. He got in there with some of those other guys. I think he did OK.”
Flores was then asked to elaborate on the “body language” issue.
“We want good body language out of everybody. We’re going to have bad plays. We need to move on to the next one, period. Players, coaches, that’s everybody. The quarterback position, they’re all looking at you. That’s something they have to be conscious of. I talked to him about it, I talked to all the quarterbacks, as well as the leaders on the team. They’re looking at you as a leader, and I think that’s an important piece of this that people don’t talk about very much, but I think it’s very important.”
Rosen seemingly admitted that he struggles with shrugging off bad plays, noting “I tend to be very critical of myself and I’m very competitive so I have always worked [on] that throughout my entire athletic career…”
Flores isn’t ready to make a decision about who will start the season. But it’s clear he’s looking for something more out of Rosen before considering the second-year quarterback.
For what it’s worth, it likely won’t matter if it’s Rosen or Ryan Fitzpatrick under center this year for Miami — the Fins are going to struggle on offense. Period.