After the Atlanta Falcons saw backup quarterback A.J. McCarron tear his ACL against the Miami Dolphins over the weekend, the team needed to act quickly and sign a replacement.
The team settled on Josh Rosen, a former Top-10 pick in the NFL Draft, who spent the first part of training camp with the San Francisco 49ers after stints with the Arizona Cardinals and Dolphins.
Backup quarterbacks need to be ready at a moment's notice and hold the fort down until the starter can return, and Rosen, it is hoped, is capable of doing that. He was selected as a first-round pick just three years ago, and the idea here is that the talent has not been sucked out of the 24-year old QB.
The former UCLA Bruin has had some bad luck in the first part of his NFL career. Or maybe he was over-drafted. We shall see.
A plus? In Atlanta, he'll team up with head coach Arthur Smith, who helped revive Ryan Tannehill's career in Tennessee after struggling and losing the starting quarterback job in Miami.
On this episode of "Locked On Falcons," host Aaron Freeman breaks down the Falcons signing Rosen and whether he could become the next great quarterback reclamation project.
He takes a deep look at why Rosen failed to deliver in previous stints in Arizona and Miami and whether Atlanta is a better environment for him to succeed. He also looks back at the history of successful reclamation projects like Chris Chandler and Tannehill, what they had in common and if the same factors play for or against Rosen in Atlanta.
He also discusses the "surprise" release of RB Javian Hawkins and the other Falcons cuts to get under the 80-man roster limit and what led to Hawkins falling out of favor in Atlanta.
Aaron deals with all that and more on this episode of "Locked On Falcons." For more podcasts and information, join us here.
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