Josh Rosen didn't play Friday night because of an injury, and he shouldn't step on the field again for UCLA this season.
This won't be a popular opinion for Bruins fans, but Rosen has little to gain and everything to lose by continuing to play in 2017. UCLA is 4-5 and has only three games left after Friday's drubbing by Utah, so the biggest reason for him to play is to try to get the Bruins to a bowl game that, it could easily be argued, is irrelevant.
Is it really worth Rosen risking serious injury to get UCLA into the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl?
There's the matter of Rosen's draft position, though, as he came into the campaign as one of the many pivots vying to be the top quarterback taken in next spring's NFL draft - a position which he seems to now be winning by default.
Sam Darnold turned into a turnover machine this season, some are still expressing doubts about whether Lamar Jackson's game will translate to the NFL, and it's clear everyone bought in on Josh Allen far too quickly. Rosen isn't a perfect prospect by any means, but he seems to have the fewest question marks and is at the top of many mock drafts.
You won't have to look far to find cases where a player suffered a serious injury late in the season which caused them to plummet down draft boards. Jaylon Smith comes to mind, as the former Notre Dame linebacker could have been a top-10 pick in 2016 if not for a major knee injury in a bowl game. Smith ended up falling into the second round and missed his entire rookie season.
That drop cost him a lot of money as well, something Rosen certainly isn't getting to play college football. Whether you believe college players should be paid or not, it doesn't make sense for him to risk millions by playing a few more immaterial collegiate games for free.
There will surely be some questions from NFL executives leading up to the draft if Rosen were to call it quits on his UCLA career early, but if last year was any indication, it won't hurt his draft stock. Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey caused a major stir by skipping bowls last year, but were still taken in the top 10.
Those decisions could have started a trend, as more players will need to weigh the pros and cons of finishing out a collegiate season with little to play for before the NFL draft. The question for some like Rosen might be: How early is too early to shut it down?
A move such as this would no doubt send shock waves through college football and perhaps ruffle plenty of feathers, but the UCLA quarterback can't think about that. He just has to do what's best for Josh Rosen.
