Rosen starts to rise
QB looks promising in leading Dolphins on 2 scoring drives
Dolphins QB Josh Rosen calls out a play at the line of scrimmage Friday night during a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneersat Raymond James Stadium.
TAMPA — Why wait the franchise’s future?
Exhibition games are for experimentation and player development, and that’s exactly how the Miami Dolphins used their second preseason game of the Brian Flores era.
Despite riding Josh Rosen hard this past week during the team’s two joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Flores started the young quarterback in Friday to get
aglimpse
into night’s preseason game instead of going with Ryan Fitzpatrick, a 14-year veteran who he’s consistently labeled as the team’s starter for most of training camp.
Rosen, who the Dolphins traded a 2019 second-round pick and a 2020 fifth-rounder to acquire during last spring’s NFL draft, had the starting offensive line protecting him during most of the first half, which ended with him completing 10 of 18 passes for 102 yards and a 72.0 passer rating.
“I thought he played well, made some good decisions out there,” said Flores, who criticized Rosen this past week for his body language during times of adversity. “I would like to not see him take as many sacks, but I thought he threw the ball well, had some drops — that didn’t help him. But I thought overall, he played well.”
Rosen, who was the 10th pick in the 2018 NFL draft, was joined on the first-team by Dwayne Allen, the team’s projected starter at
tight end, who had been nursing a knee injury until playing in Friday’s game, rookie receiver Preston Williams, who was inserted into the starting lineup because of an undisclosed injury DeVante Parker is dealing with, and Mark Walton, a former University of Miami standout, who was filling in for an injured Kenyan Drake.
Together the Dolphins’ young nucleus produced two scoring drives — a pair of field goals — in the offense’s six firsthalf possessions. Many of those drives were spoiled by miscues, dropped passes, sacks allowed, and incomplete passes.
Rosen’s first third-down pass of the game was dropped by Williams, leading to a punt.
His second possession, which was created by a fumble linebacker Sam Eguaveon forced and cornerback Eric Rowe recovered, ended at Tampa Bay’s 2-yard line after a poor fourth-down pass to Isaiah Ford was bobbled by the third-year receiver, turning over possession to the Buccaneers.
An eight-play drive took Miami 35-yards and set Jason Sanders up for his 45-yard field goal early in the second quarter. After that drive Miami’s reliable left tackle, Laremy Tunsil, was pulled out the game, and the Dolphins offense struggled until the closing minute of the second half.
That’s when Rosen and his unit gained possession on Tampa Bay’s 44-yard line, and built a 6-3 lead five plays later with a 49-yard field goal from Sanders.
Fitzpatrick replaced Rosen in the third quarter and operated behind an offensive line that featured Chris Reed at center, Michael Deiter and Shaq Calhoun, the two starters at guard, rookie Isaiah Prince at right tackle and Jaryd Jones-Smith at left tackle.
Fitzpartick completed 3-of-9 passes for 20 yards (42.4 passer rating), and gained 2 yards on the ground.
His first series ended with a bonecrushing sack from Buccaneers linebacker Demone Harris, and the offense’s performance didn’t get much better from there.
Miami’s entire offense struggled, and the root of those unit’s issues were the play of Miami’s disappointing offensive line, which allowed four sacks on Rosen and Fitzpatrick, and paved the way for 39 rushing yards on 14 carries before Kenneth Farrow delivered a 34-yard run in the third quarter.
The Dolphins have three solid starters in Tunsil, center Daniel Kilgore and Jesse Davis, who is transitioning from right guard to right tackle this season, but need to identify two starting offensive guards who will play fundamentally sound football. The hope is that it will be Deiter, the team’s 201 third-round pick, and Calhoun, an undrafted rookie from Mississippi State, will fill those roles.
“There are some growing pains, for sure,” Kilgore said. “That transition from college to the league is a big jump, but they’re handling it well. I’m really impressed with how they just come in and grind every day, and they’re getting better.”
Williams, who had a phenomenal four-catch 97-yard debut in last week’s 34-27 win over the Atlanta Falcons, came back down to earth Friday.
The undrafted rookie from Colorado State was targeted six times, but only brought down one catch for 7-yards in the first half. He dropped two of those passes and had one broken up in a collision.
The Dolphins are searching for more youngsters like Williams, was has been one of the standouts of training camp, who can help the team right away, and Miami has two more preseason games to speed up their development.
But Flores won’t be satisfied with mere progress from his young Dolphins.
“Anytime we can win, that’s what we’re looking for,” Flores said. “I’m trying to win every game, always.”