Josh Rosen opts for stability, signs with Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Football hasn’t been kind to former UCLA Bruins Josh Rosen over the past few years. And it seems like he understands that.

Looking to buck that trend and control what he can control, Rosen has agreed to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, joining their practice squad and playing under the game’s all-time greatest quarterback in Tom Brady.

Rosen has had seven offensive coordinators, dating back to 2015 with UCLA. He saw the likes of Noel Mazzone, Kennedy Polamalu and Jedd Fisch while at Westwood and then in multiple stops in the NFL so far, he has had Mike McCoy and Byron Leftwich during his one season with the Arizona Cardinals, Chad O’Shea in 2019 with the Miami Dolphins and Chan Gailey during his time with the Dolphins this offseason.

He’ll now join the Bucs and technically his eighth offensive coordinator as Leftwich and Rosen will be reunited, with Leftwich officially the lone-OC on the Bucs coaching staff. That continuity, his guaranteed money from his rookie deal still intact for two more seasons, a place behind Tom Brady, Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Griffin on the Bucs depth chart as well as no fear of being thrown to the wolves in a terrible situation (re: Cardinals, Dolphins offensive line situations during his tenure), the recipe for Rosen to finally see success in the pros is at its highest.

I mean, there’s a reason he was the 10th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

With everything seemingly aligned for him to see success, he also gets to learn from Bruce Arians, as his successes of turning quarterback’s careers arounds begins and ends with the discussion of him transforming Carson Palmer’s career into one of the all-time best in Cardinals history.

While Rosen chose the Bucs himself, and is now stashed on their practice squad, he seemingly understands that this was his best option for a couple reasons. The Bucs have no long-term plan after Tom Brady at the quarterback position. And with his place on the practice squad, he is free to sign to an active roster if a team were to have a job opening.

We can all only hope, but for multiple reasons, this seems like a perfect match for finally turning Rosen’s career around.

And if there’s another positive, it’s the fact that Josh himself is still younger than the first overall pick of the 2020 NFL Draft Joe Burrow, who will turn 24 this year and Rosen won’t turn 24 until February of 2021.

There’s still hope for a lot more football from Rosen. We can only hope Leftwich, Arians and Brady can help him harness it.