Miami Dolphins: Josh Rosen can help his cause vs. Washington

The Miami Dolphins are one of the worst teams in the NFL, but Josh Rosen has a real chance to help his cause in more ways than one starting Sunday.

Nothing has come easy in two NFL seasons for Josh Rosen, who played his rookie year with limited training camp reps with the Arizona Cardinals and his second season with limited reps for the Miami Dolphins.

Rosen is a young quarterback, and one of the most critical things for a young quarterback is the backing of the team that employs you.

Rosen didn’t have that in Arizona and it didn’t feel like he had that in Miami.

The Dolphins were not in a great position to force a quarterback competition considering Rosen’s top competitor was Ryan Fitzpatrick and the roster was intentionally depleted of its talent for future assets.

Why the Dolphins decided not to buy into Rosen from the start after they traded a second-round pick for him, I will never understand, but they are finally handing him the reins and letting him finish out the 2019 season as their starter.

Meanwhile, Rosen has not been blind to the cries of Dolphins fans everywhere to draft Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. It’s natural for a fan base of a bad team to want the next best thing at quarterback, but he’s setting out to prove he can be the guy.

In four games (two starts), Rosen has not been overly inspiring, at least not statistically. He has completed just 51.2 percent of his passes with one touchdown and three interceptions while taking 11 sacks.

Starting this weekend in the Dolphins’ home game against the Washington Redskins, Rosen has a great opportunity to begin staking his claim on the Dolphins’ QB1 spot now and going forward.

The Redskins are 0-5, they just fired their head coach, and they’re starting a journeyman veteran in Case Keenum who is about to play his first game off of injury.

Although the Dolphins don’t have a ton of talent to write home about, the Redskins are certainly not loaded at the moment, either.

If Rosen can help lead the Dolphins to their first win of the season against the Redskins — yes, it’s a tall order regardless of the circumstances — not only will he be putting some good tape out there, he’ll also be putting the Dolphins behind the hapless Redskins in the 2020 NFL Draft order.

If the Dolphins win this game, it could prove detrimental to their aspirations of picking first overall.

Although the Dolphins are looking to pick as high as possible, they have three first-round picks and an extra potential top 10 (or top five) pick from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Winning against the Redskins would put Washington at 0-6 this season and the Dolphins at 1-4 with plenty of football left to play.

Soon, the Redskins will move to Dwayne Haskins and that could put them firmly in the mix for a top three selection.

Even if the Dolphins aren’t picking first overall, they could take a quarterback, but Rosen can help his cause not only by putting some good things on tape, he could also put another team ahead of the Dolphins in the 2020 NFL Draft sweepstakes with a win this weekend.