Arizona Cardinals: Will Josh Rosen be able to ignite the offense?
By Larry Brake
The Arizona Cardinals are looking to Josh Rosen to ignite the stale offense moving forward in the 2018 season.
Josh Rosen has a huge job going forward. The Arizona Cardinals have the NFL’s worst offense through the first four games. Currently, the Cardinals are averaging 208.5 total yards per game. They average 141.8 passing yards per game and 66.8 rushing yards per game. As a result, their offense ranks at the bottom in total offense. Will Rosen be able to ignite the offense?
To make matters worse, Arizona has only scored 37 points. They are dead last in that NFL category too. Sam Bradford was unable to get the offense untracked through four games.
Remember, Rosen was drafted to be the future franchise quarterback. The future is now. Is it possible for him to thrive in the current Cardinals offensive scheme?
Will Mike McCoy tweak the offense to better suit Rosen’s ability? Last Sunday, Rosen completed 15-of-27 passes for 180 with one touchdown. Looking at NFL.com’s Next Gen Stats, Rosen threw the majority of his passes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage (LOS). He completed 2-of-5 passes from 10-20 yards beyond the LOS. Four of his throws were over 20 yards down field and he completed two, with one being his first touchdown pass of his career.
David Johnson accounted for 112 total yards against Seattle. Ricky Seals-Jones caught two passes of four targets for 52 yards. They combined for 164 of Arizona’s 263 total yards.
The Cardinals offense needs to become more vertical. The underneath dink and dunk has not been effective. Rosen has a big arm and is accurate. After four games, the once promising season is slowly fading away. There is no reason to be conservative in the play calling. McCoy should either open up the playbook or rewrite it.
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The Cardinals play San Francisco twice in the next four weeks. Those are winnable games. Since they are NFC West foes, Arizona must do whatever possible to win. Will Rosen be able to ignite the stale offense? We’ll have to wait and see.