Take Two: Are NFL concerns about Josh Rosen overblown?

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Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and an expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

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The NFL Scouting Combine will be held over the weekend, which means we will finally get to see the quarterbacks in action and word will leak about how interviews went and impressions on all the top guys.

This is a wildly entertaining quarterback group since it’s so loaded but also filled with question marks especially around whether Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen is really a No. 1 pick, to whether Sam Darnold can solve his turnover issues, to whether Baker Mayfield is a top-five pick, to whether Lamar Jackson is even an NFL-caliber quarterback to whether Josh Rosen's injury and off-field issues are concern enough to move him down in the first round.

It is pretty much accepted across the board that Rosen, a former five-star quarterback who played at UCLA, has tremendous arm ability, the brains to be successful in the NFL and that he could end up being the No. 1 pick.

There are questions, though, about some shenanigans he pulled during his time at UCLA like putting a hot tub in his dorm room or wearing an anti-Trump hat at one of Trump’s California golf courses. Also, as the NFL Combine inches closer, injury concerns around Rosen have popped up from his time with the Bruins.

Are these concerns overblown? Can Rosen do anything in Indianapolis through the week to convince NFL teams he’s the best quarterback in the draft?

“The off-field concerns are overblown. Having a hot tub, wearing an anti-Trump hat, and speaking his mind about the NCAA paying players hardly screams problem child. But, on the other hand, his personality has rubbed a few (see David Shaw and Trent Dilfer when he was in high school) in the football world the wrong way. With no teammate ever bashing him and no coach that he's played under ever having a bad thing to say about him, I wouldn't be worried.

"Though as head strong as some GMs and NFL coaches are, and with so much riding on the top-five pick they'll need to use to get him, I at least somewhat understand the concerns. I'd imagine once Rosen gets to the combine and does all of his team interviews, we'll no longer hear about the off-field worries. But, until then, the Rosen criticism will keep trudging on, no matter how inaccurate it appears to be.” – LEWIS

“I can see why there are those competitive questions. The team around him didn’t seem to give a lot of effort. That certainly hurts your reputation. You can get lumped in with that. The UCLA team he played on, it folded pretty quickly.

“Rosen doesn’t show a lot of emotion so a lot of people don’t think he cares. He answers questions honestly how it’s impossible to be a student-athlete, the hot tub thing. I think they think he takes everything as a joke and they’re misinterpreting his competitive desire. I could see how that happens where it wouldn’t happen to Baker Mayfield, who’s always intense even getting himself in trouble or Sam Darnold, who just doesn’t talk. I can see why it’s happening but I don’t see it as a reason not to take him first. He’s clearly the best quarterback.” – FARRELL