Fair assessment I'll give you that. But in comparison to Allen and Darnold all 3 were ranked very low. I'm not sure if that is common among rookies? The only issue was Allen (who was atrocious before their schedule eased up)/Darnold had some games where they lit up the stat sheet. Arizona did not seem to get those same opportunities.
Good points.
Here's where we may need to dig deeper. Darnold's upside was that he was extremely young, and as a rookie that's how he showed. He had good flashes, but was made to look like a naïve and easily fooled rookie. But that was to be expected, he was always going to have serious growing pains. Josh Allen (the QB for Buffalo, not the edge rusher in this draft) was a physical specimen who was raw and played a less rigorous level of competition, although they did schedule up as well as they could, so it wasn't that bad. As a rookie Allen also showed that, making Hercules type throws and amazing escapes, but in the end just not being accurate enough and not reading defenses well enough yet. He was always the project.
In contrast, Rosen was considered by many to be the most pro-ready. Personally, I always saw Baker Mayfield as the most pro-ready, but I was in the minority on that one and usually called a Baker-homer, but my analysis proved right as a rookie. Regardless, Rosen was more polished than Allen and Darnold certainly, and was expected to have a smoother rookie campaign. But, as you have so eloquently pointed out, the Arizona OL was the worst in the NFL, he faced constant pressure, endured bad coaching, and much turmoil as a rookie.
Let's hope that those extremely negative circumstances were major contributors to Rosen not producing. We're hoping the system suits him better, and I don't mean to speak for you but I believe we both agree that it will. It is mentally challenging and asks a LOT of the QB in terms of intellect and quick mental processing of information, and we both believe Rosen is up to the challenge and up to the task for these things. But there will be a learning curve, because it is a very complex system for a QB. Our OL is better than Arizona's, and we're improving it. We're building an OL around him and its already much better than Arizona's was last year. Tunsil is top notch LT, Deiter will be a good LG, if Davis starts he'll have more experience and be at RT which suits him better. Kilgore is healthy so even if we don't add a new C, we should be improved. We're still adding more talent. Drake is a good RB and our WR corps is good. I'm higher on our TE group than most are. Dwayne Allen is a good in-line TE and I believe Mike Gesicki will prove to be a good move TE. The front office is building a team around Rosen that will significantly reduce the outside problems he faced last year. He will get another chance. But it will be up to him how long that chance stays open.
