Stud UCLA Quarterback to Enter NFL Draft, Could Face Exile to Cleveland

In ending the mystery and speculation, stud NCAA quarterback Josh Rosen has announced that he will be ending his college career and entering the NFL draft.

The former UCLA Bruin has drawn rave reviews and is a lock to be one of the top picks in April’s NFL Draft and in the right situation, could go on to have a great pro career.

Via the Los Angeles Times “UCLA’s Josh Rosen is headed to the NFL”:

UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen made official Wednesday what had long been anticipated, announcing that he would declare for the NFL draft after three seasons in which his teams never matched his singular brilliance.

The junior who had one season of college eligibility remaining revealed his decision on Twitter, thanking the Bruins while acknowledging that they never fulfilled expectations.

“I especially want to thank my teammates,” Rosen wrote in the post. “I wish we had won more games, but friendships were forged and memories were made that will last a lifetime.”

Rosen is widely projected to be among the top picks in the NFL draft in April because of his remarkable combination of arm strength and accuracy. He became UCLA’s top single-season passer in 2017, his 3,756 yards surpassing the 3,740 that Brett Hundley, now with the Green Bay Packers, compiled for the Bruins in 2012.

Rosen set the mark despite missing two full games and parts of two others because of concussions that kept him out of the Bruins’ 35-17 loss to Kansas State in the Cactus Bowl. Rosen wanted to play in the bowl game and even went through warmups but was held out as a precaution by doctors who did not want to risk him suffering a third concussion in a span of less than two months.

Unfortunately for Rosen, the Cleveland Browns are on the clock.

It’s inconceivable that the Browns could have been even WORSE than they were in 2016 when they finished 1-15 but the “mistake by the lake” accomplished the nearly impossible by posting a perfect 0-16 season, this despite a number of improvements and high draft picks that almost certainly should have modestly improved the team.

Cleveland has been a dumpster fire ever since the NFL awarded the city an expansion franchise in 1999 after owner Art Modell sold the original Browns to Baltimore where they became the Ravens. The Browns have been nothing short of putrid for nearly two decades with the cherry on top of the garbage heap being this year’s winless debacle.

Normally when a team goes 1-31 (which is anything BUT normal) or thereabouts in two years, the head coach gets the ax but not in Cleveland. Owner Jimmy Haslam inconceivably gave Jackson a vote of confidence despite joining the Detroit Lions as the only team to go 0-16 in the league’s history (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were 0-14 way back in 1976) but while the Lions were able to rebound quickly to mediocrity,  it’s hard to imagine a cursed franchise like the Browns doing likewise.

Rosen could be entering NFL Hell if the Browns call his number and he may rue the day that he didn’t stick around at UCLA for another year.