QB Josh Rosen tells press he was 'pissed off' before Cardinals selected him at No. 10
Most NFL prospects dream of being a top 10 draft pick, but for UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen, being the tenth selection Thursday night was infuriating.
Rosen told reporters he was “pissed off” as he sat at the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium and watched nine players — including three other quarterbacks — go off the board ahead of him.
The Browns selected Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield with the No. 1 overall pick, the Jets nabbed USC’s Sam Darnold at No. 3 and the Bills traded up to get Wyoming’s Josh Allen at No. 7.
Rosen went three picks later to the Arizona Cardinals, who had made a trade with Oakland to jump up to No. 10.
In several postdraft interviews, the former Bruin expressed his anger at being passed over.
“I thought I should’ve been picked at 1, 2 or 3,” Rosen said via ESPN. “I dropped, and I was pissed. I was really, really angry. I wasn’t really showing it. I was trying to keep calm, cool, composed. But I thought I was going to get picked.”
He went further, saying, “Nine mistakes were made ahead of me.”
While Rosen was surprised and angry over where he was selected, it fell in line with the vast majority of mock drafts, many of which had him going to the Dolphins at No. 11. The Cardinals likely made the move to leapfrog Miami for just that reason.
Rosen told reporters that his rage dissipated when the Cardinals’ pick was announced.
“I thought I was going to have to fake a smile and pretend I was happy,” he said. “Honestly, the second I got that call it all went away.”
Rosen now plans to use the perceived snubs as motivation in Arizona and prove those teams wrong.
“I will make sure over the next decade or so that they will know that they made a mistake,” he said, adding, “I just want to get to the facility. If the plane would leave tonight, I’d get on the plane and go.”
Rosen has been described as outspoken — some would say abrasive.
In 2016, he posted (and later deleted) a photo on Instagram of himself playing golf while wearing a “F— Trump” hat.
He has said he will use his platform to push for political change: “One cause I’ll champion is the environment. It touches everything. I mean, the war in Syria started because of the drought and famine that destabilized the country and led the population to revolt against the government. I know global warming is a partisan issue for some stupid reason, but it touches everything.”
Rosen’s comments about college football last August also raised eyebrows: “Look, football and school don’t go together. They just don’t. Trying to do both is like trying to do two full-time jobs. There are guys who have no business being in school, but they’re here because this is the path to the NFL. There’s no other way. Then there’s the other side that says raise the SAT eligibility requirements. OK, raise the SAT requirement at Alabama and see what kind of team they have.”
The Cardinals, however, aren’t worried about their new quarterback’s candor.
“Everybody is wired differently,” GM Steve Keim said Thursday via KTAR-FM in Phoenix. “The great news is a lot of this position is played between the ears and this guy in my opinion is arguably the most intelligent in this draft.
“I don’t think he’s afraid to say what’s on his mind which I don’t always think is a bad thing. There’s been some pretty successful quarterbacks in recent years who have been wired the same way, who have said what is on their mind, who have had a thirst to learn from their coaches, to ask for more responsibility from the coaches in terms of play calls and checking at the line of scrimmage, which again, I think is exciting because the guy is dialed in mentally.”
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