Asking if UCLA football’s Josh Rosen or Sam Darnold should be selected No. 1 in the 2018 NFL Draft is like asking do you want extra cheese with that.
Rosen, a junior at UCLA, has been groomed for the role of franchise quarterback since long before he stepped on the Los Angeles-based campus.
Standing 6-foot-4 and weighing in at over 200 pounds, the California native has the size to look over defenses and the strength to withstand the wear and tear of the longer NFL season.
Following a dazzling freshman season, Rosen was hit with the injury bug in 2016. He was lost, and to no surprise, UCLA sputtered without its main offensive cog. The former St. John Bosco standout, though, has returned to the forefront of both the college football landscape and that of the NFL in his near future.
Rosen is the currently NCAA leader in passing yards, total offense, passing yards per game and has the Bruins sitting at 3-2.
While there is absolutely nothing wrong with Darnold, and this is far from a Peyton Manning-Ryan Leaf debate, the notion that the Trojan could intercept Rosen for the top prospect is just not true and here’s five reasons why:
5. Passing yards are No. 1 in the nation
Through five games this season, Rosen has thrown for an FBS-best 2,135 yards, giving him an average of 427 per game, which also leads the nation. Add in his rushing total and he is sitting at over 431 yards of offense per game – best there, as well.
Rosen has already put the ball in the air 245 times, including a 60-attempt performance in a loss to Stanford recently. He is completing almost 65 percent of his passes, up five percentage points from his 2015 freshman campaign.
As for touchdowns, Rosen is doing that, throwing 17 of them to just five interceptions. And his numbers are very close to the same on the road and at home:
Home: 85 of 129, 1,192 yards, 10 touchdowns, 1 interception
Road: 74 of 116, 943 yards, 7 touchdowns, 4 interceptions
Rosen has played one more game at home this year compared to the road. Taking an even closer look at his splits, the fourth quarter has been when the Bruin has shined brightest, throwing for 755 yards with seven touchdowns – more than any other quarter played this season.
4. No deficit is too much
It is remarkable how many times players quit when they get in a hole.
Rosen isn’t one of those.
The NFL has had several memorable comebacks through the years, with New England Patriots legend Tom Brady coming to mind for many of them, including the recent Super Bowl.
UCLA opened the year looking like Jim Mora would need to find a new job and Rosen would need to get out of town in a hurry.
After falling behind by 34 points to Texas A&M, Rosen didn’t give up. Instead, he directed the biggest comeback in school history and the biggest comeback in college football in over 10 years, as the Bruins defeated the Aggies, 45-44.
Rosen even channeled the ghosts of Dan Marino, using a perfectly-executed fake spike to score the game-winning points with 43 seconds remaining.
Over the final 15 minutes of the game, Rosen threw for 292 yards — a complete game for many — and four touchdowns. He was an incredible 35 of 49 for 491 yards.
He also showed his ability to move on and forget, a key asset for any NFL quarterback. Playing for the first time since early in 2016, Rosen fumbled twice in the opening stages of the game.
But that didn’t keep him from regrouping, chipping away at the deficit and leading the comeback.
3. NFL-ready offense
Yes, the idea that Rosen will run for 100 yards and break the defense with scrambles is almost impossible.
But for his future, that is actually a good thing.
While the NFL is more open to spread quarterbacks as evident by the success of Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson and a handful of others, most prefer the typical under-center QB who can slide back into shotgun when needed.
That’s exactly what Rosen does on the football field.
He isn’t the kind of quarterback who will dart from the pocket at the first sign of danger. Instead, he’ll make his progressions, look downfield and take what the defense gives him.
Rosen is a better-than 60 percent passer who has negative career yards rushing. As mentioned, he isn’t going to burn you down the sideline with his legs, but at over eight yards per pass, he is going to effectively beat you with his arm.
2. Bookworm
It really should not be much of a surprise that Rosen is a book smart and football smart.
His father, Charles, is an orthopedic spine surgeon, and his mother, Liz, is a former journalist who attended Princeton.
Rosen excelled in the classroom just as much as on the football field while St. John Bosco High School, earning a 4.3 grade point average. He graduated early to begin work on his economics major, which also allowed him to get the jump on the Bruin playbook and become the first true freshman to ever start at quarterback in the season opener.
We can also use the early season headlines Rosen made for his comments about football and school not going together. As evident by his work already mentioned, Rosen isn’t an athlete-only; he gets it.
Could he have gone about it all a little better? Of course. But did it show that he is capable of more than just breaking down a college defense? Definitely.
1. Scratching the surface
For as good as Rosen is right now, imagine where he might be if he hadn’t went down with an injury last season.
Six games into the 2016 season, Rosen was hurt in a loss to Arizona State and lost for the year. He suffered a shoulder injury that likely forced him to work on his mental makeup over the long winter.
While Rosen is the current NCAA leader in passing yards and total offense per game, if he had those six games back, he’d likely be ahead of his own current paces.
Before the injury, he had completed 137-of-231 for 1,915 yards and 10 touchdowns, including a 400-yard passing day vs. the Sun Devils and a three-touchdown performance the week before vs. Arizona.
As a true freshman, Rosen had six 300-yard passing days and seven games with multiple passing touchdowns.
Next: NFL Mock Draft 2018: First round after Week 6
To say we haven’t seen the best Josh Rosen yet just might be what NFL scouts, coaches and general managers are believing as well when the draft begins in the spring.