All Dolphins

Josh Rosen and a Dolphins History Lesson

The Miami Dolphins reportedly have been fielding calls from teams interested in trading for quarterback Josh Rosen

Alain Poupart

Steve Mitchell-USA Today Sports

It probably shouldn't have come as a great surprise to hear a report saying teams have called the Miami Dolphins this offseason to gauge their interest in trading quarterback Josh Rosen.

After all, Rosen stands as the clear No. 3 quarterback on the roster with Ryan Fitzpatrick back after earning team MVP honors in 2019 and with the Dolphins taking Tua Tagovailoa with the fifth overall selection in the 2020 NFL draft.

Rosen is very unlikely to start this year because of Fitzpatrick and he likely won't start for the Dolphins after that because it's Tua who's the quarterback of the future.

But let's examine two interesting facets of this situation:

The first thing is the Dolphins aren't going to just give Rosen away, nor should they.

The reasons are simple and multiple: Rosen is still a very young quarterback with a lot of ability.

How young? Rosen is two months younger than Joe Burrow, the first overall pick in the aforementioned 2020 draft, so it's entirely possible that Rosen can grow as a quarterback and reach another level he's yet to attain in his first two NFL seasons.

Yes, there are issues to fix, namely processing time in the pocket and quicker decision-making, but Rosen does have some positive traits such as a good size, good mobility and a strong arm.

Secondly, Rosen has a very team-friendly contract after the Arizona Cardinals absorbed his rookie signing bonus.

Rosen's cap number for the next two years ar $2.1 million and $3 million, according to overthecap.com, and those are more than reasonable numbers for any quarterback.

Remember that the Dolphins gave up a second-round pick in the 2019 draft and a fifth-round selection in 2020 to acquire Rosen from the Cardinals, so they obviously want to see if they can get more value from this deal.

That means either holding out for something better than a throw-away pick in a future draft or just hanging on to Rosen to see what kind of progress he can make in his second year with the Dolphins.

Now on to the other part of the equation, and that's the idea of trading for a player one year and trading him away the very next year.

It's been done before. Many times.

The Dolphins have done it themselves eight times, most recently just last spring when they sent Robert Quinn to the Dallas Cowboys for a sixth-round draft pick just one year after they acquired him from the Los Angeles Rams.

The other seven players acquired via trade by the Dolphins and traded after just one season: QB Billy Anderson (1966-67), QB George Wilson Jr. (1966-67), RB Cookie Gilchrist (1966-67), TE Bill Cronin (1966-67), CB Tim McKyer (1990-91), QB Cade McNown (2001-02), QB A.J. Feeley (2004-05) and Quinn.

Notice that four of those trade combos occurred in the first two years of the franchise when the Dolphins were building from scratch and trying to find the right players for the long term.

Also notice that two of the players involved in coming-and-going trades since 1990 were quarterbacks.

And McNown, like Rosen, was a first-round pick. He was selected 12th overall in the 1999 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears but didn't pan out there.

The Dolphins acquired him along with a seventh-round draft pick in exchange for two sixth-round choices, so it wasn't a big investment.

McNown made the 53-man roster out of training camp in 2001 but spent the whole season as the third quarterback behind Jay Fiedler and Ray Lucas.

The following spring, the Dolphins sent McNown to the San Francisco 49ers for a conditional seventh-round pick they never ended up getting.

Then there was the ill-fated trade for Feeley in the spring of 2004. The Dolphins gave the Philadelphia Eagles a second-round pick for a quarterback who had appeared in six games in three seasons as Donovan McNabb's backup.

Dolphins fans know how that one turned out. Feeley was beaten out by Fiedler for the starting job in training camp, though he replaced him at halftime of the opener before going 3-5 as a starter and recording a 61.7 passer rating.

By the middle of the following season, the Dolphins had seen enough and trading Feeley AND a sixth-round pick to the San Diego Chargers for fellow quarterback Cleo Lemon.

As fate would have it, Feeley eventually ended up back with the Eagles.

So, as you can see, there is precedence to the Dolphins trading away a player a year after acquiring that same player via trade.

It could happen again with Rosen, but the Dolphins aren't going to do it just for the sake of doing i

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Alain Poupart
ALAIN POUPART

Alain Poupart is the publisher/editor of All Dolphins and co-host of the All Dolphins Podcast. Alain has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989 for various publications and media outlets, including Dolphin Digest, The Associated Press, the Dolphins team website, and the Fan Nation Network (part of Sports Illustrated). In addition to being a credentialed member of the Miami Dolphins press corps, Alain has covered three Super Bowls (for NFL.com, Football News and the Montreal Gazette), the annual NFL draft, the Senior Bowl, and the NFL Scouting Combine. During his almost 40 years in journalism, which began at the now-defunct Miami News, Alain has covered practically every sport at one time or another, from tennis to golf, baseball, basketball and everything in between. The career also included time as a copy editor, including work on several books such as "Still Perfect," an inside look at the Miami Dolphins' 1972 perfect season. A native of Montreal, Canada, whose first language is French, Alain grew up a huge hockey fan but soon developed a love for all sports, including NFL football. He has lived in South Florida since the 1980s.

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