Quarterback Josh Rosen has prompted a ton of scrutiny in advance of the draft. Not for what he does on the field, but for the things he says.
During a recent visit to PFT Live/#PFTPM, Rosen said some interesting things about what he believes his No. 1 attribute to be.
“I think I’m an alpha personality,” Rosen said. “I think I’m that dude. I think I’m gonna go into a locker room. I’m obviously gonna know my place. I’m gonna work my butt off. I’m gonna earn the respect of my teammates first. But as time moves on and I turn more into that leadership role I think I will hold guys accountable. I will hold myself accountable. I’m gonna be that dude that at the end of the season when the game’s on the line and you look your teammates in the eye you can promise them and assure them that you are gonna go down the field and score a touchdown.”
In a locker room full of alpha personalities, some may resist Rosen’s plan to come in and take over. So how will he deal with the guys who resist?
“The alpha guy doesn’t actually necessarily mean you’re talking,” Rosen said. “It just means you carry yourself like it. When people look at you they know what they’re getting. They know that you’re doing the right thing at all times. With regards to different personalities, I think that’s why leadership is a progression over time.
“People are asking me through the process like, ‘What’s your leadership style?’ You can’t just go out and say, ‘I’m gonna give motivational speeches before every game,’ because there’s not like one single brush stroke that you can just push over everything. It takes time and effort. You have to get to know your teammates. In college it took over three years to develop some of these relationships. They need to understand how invested you are so that once it comes down to those crucial moments in a season, when you say something it comes from a place of understanding and respect for how much I have put in the offseason. . . .
“You have to know how guys respond. Some guys might need a kick in the butt. Some guys might be super-self critical and they need some encouragement. Every relationship is unique. It’s messy. It takes time. There’s not an end-all-be-all trick you can do. There’s not some pretty answer you can throw out there for a team. It just takes time and effort. You have to get to know a person and you have to understand if that person is willing to put in that effort to become a leader. I can say with full conviction that I am that guy. When I say ‘A’ type personality that’s what I mean. The fact that I’m gonna be that gel in the room that relates guys on the team that have nothing to relate to because I’m gonna be doing the right things at all time.”
It all sounds very good. The challenge for Rosen will be to pull it off once he lands with an NFL team and finds himself inside a locker room, putting these concepts into action and making the connections necessary to truly lead a franchise as a franchise quarterback.
For the full 13-minute interview with Rosen, check out the video accompanying this blurb.