UCLA Football: Is Josh Rosen a sure-fire franchise quarterback?

4 of 6

College Production

Josh Rosen is a game changer. Literally.

When Rosen arrived on UCLA’s campus in the spring of 2015 he received a playbook filled with traditional spread offensive concepts designed to take advantage of former starting quarterback Brett Hundley’s skill set.

More from UCLA Bruins

Spread offenses are predicated on spacing out the field with multiple receivers to quickly attack opposing defenses horizontally across the field. If the play falls apart, or no receivers get open, spread quarterbacks will typically take off in an attempt to run for a first down. This offensive scheme works best to highlight a quarterback’s natural athleticism and can cover up a players lack of elite arm talent and decision making abilities.

Rosen was able to succeed in this scheme but it became apparent to head coach Jim Mora, a former NFL head coach, that sticking strictly to spread concepts wouldn’t properly use Rosen’s natural talents.

Josh Rosen was the number one rated quarterback coming out of high school, but unlike many of his peers Josh is a pure pocket passer, in the vein of Eli Manning. Rosen does the vast majority of his damage with his arm while planted inside the pocket, as opposed to being swung out on bootlegs or performing zone read plays. In 19 college games Josh has rushed for negative-57 yards on 59 attempts while being sacked 28 times.

Even though Rosen won’t be making highlight reel 40 yards runs anytime soon he does have the ability to dazzle as a passer.

Rosen has an absolute cannon for an arm. He can make any throw in the book and does so with the touch, anticipation and velocity of a seasoned pro. Josh will routinely throw into double, triple and even quadruple coverage and deliver the ball directly into his receiver’s hands.

In order to highlight Rosen’s skill set, coach Mora began to incorporate more traditional pro-style vertical concepts into the Bruin’s passing game. A typical vertical passing offense is much more complex to operate than its spread counterparts. Plays require much more time to set up, due to the nature of running deep routes, and need a quarterback who can read a defense and adjust the play accordingly, both highlights of Rosen’s game.

In 2016 UCLA committed fully to running a pro-style offense. After taking almost every snap in 2015 from the shotgun, Rosen found himself taking snaps from under center, and had the freedom to call audibles from the line of scrimmage. While Rosen only played in six games, and there were obvious growing pains across the offense as players adjusted to such a drastic change of scheme, Josh looked like a natural pocket passer.

In his two season of college ball Josh has shown NFL teams that he can thrive in a variety of offensive schemes with ease. Rosen’s game film shows everything scouts craze from a franchise quarterback, from reading defenses and making adjustments, to attacking defenses from all over the field.

While he probably won’t test particularly well at the NFL combine, Josh Rosen is more quarterback than athlete, and a great one at that.

Home/UCLA Bruins