UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen will be eligible to enter the NFL Draft following the 2017 season. But Bruins coach Jim Mora expects that Rosen will remain in college for the 2018 season.
“My firm belief is that he will not leave,” Mora said, per Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports. “I want a disclaimer, I have an option to change my opinion. … But as we sit here right now, I can really honestly say I don’t think he’s going to leave.”
We salute Mora for his optimism. Still, we have to note that in this case, the optimism comes against a pretty good mountain of evidence.
First of all, Rosen’s draft stock in 2018 is presently high. Of course, that can change over the course of a football season. But a number of NFL teams who project to be picking early in the first round lack a franchise quarterback. With that in mind, Rosen’s chances of being a top-five pick are good.
Secondly, Rosen has been an outspoken critic of the NCAA system. In 2016, he opined (via Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports) that being a student athlete was “almost like indentured servitude.” More recently, he told Matt Hayes of Bleacher Report that “football and school don’t go together.”
These certainly don’t sound like the words of anyone who plans on staying in school any longer than he has to.