Josh Rosen, QB, UCLA 2018 NFL Draft scouting report

2018 NFL Draft scouting report for UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen, one of the most polarizing players in the class. How high can he go?

UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is one of the more polarizing players in a draft that is loaded at his quarterback position.

Rosen is the son of two very decorated athletes, his mother a lacrosse player at Princeton and both his mother and father gold medal ice dancers/figure skaters.

He was the top ranked quarterback recruit coming out of high school and has not disappointed.

Since his arrival at UCLA, Rosen racked up 9,340 yards passing in 30 career games, along with 59 touchdowns compared to 26 interceptions.

In his final season at UCLA, Rosen completed a career-high 62.6 percent of his passes with other career marks in yards (3,756), touchdowns (26), and yards per attempt (T-8.3).

Strengths

Rosen is probably the most polished quarterback in the 2018 class mechanically. He can take a five or seven step drop. He can operate an offense from under center. He is a player that can step into an NFL camp and absorb the offense right away because he’s played in an NFL offense now for three years in college.

That pro-readiness can’t be overstated.

Rosen’s arm is above average. He can fit the ball in tight windows, and he can drop the ball into a bucket deep downfield. He’s not going to light up a radar gun like Josh Allen, but Rosen’s arm strength is good enough that he can beat any coverage.

Rosen’s receivers at UCLA struggled with drops, so his completion percentage could have (and probably should have) been a lot higher than it ended up being this past season.

One of Rosen’s great strengths already is his ability to make anticipatory throws. He understands how to anticipate coverages and put the ball in a spot before his receiver even gets out of his break. This doesn’t mean he’s the most accurate quarterback in the draft, but he understands where the ball needs to go, and most importantly, timing.

Rosen’s ability to work from the pocket is at or very near the top of the class. He does a great job of keeping his eyes downfield, even under pressure, and is capable of making throws with pressure bearing down. He has the toughness physically to stand in and deliver a throw in the face of a defender bearing down on him.

His footwork is very advanced for his age. Coming off of play-action, there’s no quarterback in this year’s class more smooth than this guy.

Rosen is going to transition very quickly to the speed of the NFL because of the many small details in his game he has already mastered.

Weaknesses

Football-wise, Rosen has few weaknesses. He’s a good athlete, but he’s not as athletic as other quarterbacks in this year’s class.

When you look at guys like Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson, and even Sam Darnold, Rosen doesn’t have the ability to make plays with his legs that these guys do, at least not on a consistent basis. As a tennis player, he’s certainly not a stiff athlete by any means but he’s behind those other players in this category.

Rosen also has injury history that is somewhat concerning. He played in just six games as a sophomore at UCLA when he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, and he sat out UCLA’s bowl game this past year after suffering a concussion. It wasn’t the first concussion he’d suffered last season, either.

There’s also the rumors that Rosen is hard to coach. I don’t think Rosen is a bad teammate, because the type of personality he has, I think a lot of kids his age resonate with that. But I don’t know if every coach or every veteran player will like him. I’ve never met him personally, so I have no idea.

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His teammates at UCLA seemed to like him. You don’t get this good at football without working hard, so obviously if people think he doesn’t care about his craft, they are mistaken. But those questions have been there and where there’s smoke it’s important that NFL teams examine whether or not there’s a fire.

Final Thoughts

I view Rosen as the third best quarterback in this draft class behind Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield. To me, he is the most pro-ready mechanically, but I have concerns about his injury history and I also think the other two players provide more in terms of improvisation skills when plays break down that Rosen simply doesn’t at this point.

This is one of the best all-around players in the draft, and of course looking at his tape, it’s easy to see why he’s been such a coveted prospect dating back to his high school days. I think he’ll be a top five draft choice barring something unforeseen in his pre-draft screening process.

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