Josh Rosen works way back into Dolphins competition

[The Dolphin]

Any lead Ryan Fitzpatrick had in the Dolphins quarterback competition has promptly vanished, which seems about right considering his career trajectory.

But after Josh Rosen turned in another strong performance in Saturday’s quasi-scrimmage and Fitzpatrick struggled again, the competition appears to be well and truly on.

“That’s irrelevant in my head,” Rosen said of the state of the competition, via Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald. “Just trying to compete with all the quarterbacks, but also try to compete on the field, have fun. Because the one thing that coach was stressing in the meeting was, we’ve put a lot of work in. Been a lot of really tough, hot, long training camp days.

“The scrimmage is supposed to be fun. Football, it’s a game. We all have a job to do and we’re taking it seriously, but I was excited to come out here and have fun, play football.”

While he stood out, Fitzpatrick threw a pair of bad interceptions, and coach Brian Flores noted before the scrimmage that Rosen had made significant improvements since he declared Fitzpatrick to be leading the competition recently.

“He’s made some improvement really across the board,” Flores said. “It’s things a lot of people don’t see. Better footwork, better mechanics in the pocket, better decision-making.

“I know I said he was leading the way the other day, but let’s be clear there’s still a lot competition and a lot of time left. Today is a big day to showcase the improvement guys have made.”

While Fitzpatrick has shown the ability to create brief and bright-shining moments of competence, the ceiling is much higher with Rosen, and the Dolphins might be better off giving the former first-rounder all the chances they can to make the job his own.