It’s way too early to say if Josh Rosen’s proclamation that “nine mistakes were made” before he was taken by the Cardinals in the 2018 NFL draft was an accurate one. But, for at least one of the teams that passed on Rosen, we’re almost at that point.

It’s been three years since the Broncos were thrown into the quarterback wilderness after Peyton Manning’s body failed him and eventually forced him into retirement. After being outbid by Houston for Brock Osweiler, Denver drafted Paxton Lynch, who was tall and could throw hard and, well, that’s about it. He was beaten out by Trevor Siemian. And after the seventh-rounder failed to lock down the starting job, Denver decided to give Case Keenum a $36 million deal. We’re not even two months into that deal, and Broncos fans are already clamoring for the backup.

Signing Keenum apparently gave GM John Elway enough confidence in his quarterback room to take a defensive end with the fifth-overall pick. Had Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold been available, maybe Elway would’ve taken a passer at that spot, but Rosen was not enticing enough for him to address the team’s biggest need.

Elway and Broncos fans will get a taste of what could have been when Denver visits Arizona for Thursday Night Football. Rosen will start his fourth NFL game against the team that passed on him six months ago. You’d hardly realize that just by watching him play. Rosen is not your ordinary rookie quarterback.

It’s usually easy to spot a rookie quarterback. Their feet are out of control. Their eyes are darting all over the field. They often try to do too much. Not Rosen, though. He always seems to be in control …

That looks like a fairly routine throw, and it may be for guys like Tom Brady and Drew Brees, but not a 21-year-old rookie. His feet are perfectly in sync with his eyes as if they were programmed. You just don’t see that out of rookie passers. Not even in the very good ones.

There’s no prototype for a great quarterback, but all of the greats seem to have one thing in common: They know how to maneuver in the pocket and find space while keeping their eyes downfield. Rosen clearly possesses that trait.

Rosen is like a great basketball shooter in that it doesn’t matter how he’s forced to make a throw, he’s always going to get his feet in the right position to do so. On the following play, he has to do a little hop to evade the rusher and do it quickly enough to make get the ball off on time. He manages to get his feet set while doing it.

The defensive back wisely peeled off his man to prevent what would have been a perfectly-placed touchdown pass.

Rosen biggest strengths as a passer don’t splash on a highlight reel, which is probably why he has hasn’t received the acclaim Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold have this season. There’s refined subtlety to his game that you won’t recognize if you aren’t looking for it. Like how he is able to come off his first read before he finishes his drop.

Or how he’ll slow down his drop to synchronize it with a receiver’s route.

That’s a tip he picked up from Aaron Rodgers during a pre-draft segment they taped for NFL Network.

https://youtu.be/3pNh6QFFYoM?t=196

You have to wonder how Elway, who knows what it takes to play the quarterback position at a high level, watched Rosen’s tape and didn’t see these things. Or did he just not value them as much as he should have?

It might be the latter. During the pre-draft process, Elway admitted to the Denver Post that he favors quarterbacks who play the game like he did.

A former pro QB such as Elway or Kubiak tends to be attracted to a younger version of himself. “If they’ve played quarterback before, I think their playing style is going to draw them to guys that are more their play-style type,” Elway said.

Elway get lumped in with the Montanas and Marinos, but he was a different type of quarterback. He was big, strong and athletic. He wasn’t an ideal pocket passer (and is still tenth in all-time running yards by a QB). He’d throw off his back foot when he didn’t have to. He’d even run into sacks…

He thrived in chaos. Basically the antithesis of who Josh Rosen is as a quarterback, which is probably why the Broncos passed on the UCLA product.

Elway’s mistake when it comes to picking quarterbacks has been not realizing how special he was during his long NFL career. Chasing the next Elway is a fool’s errand because they come along once a generation.

Quarterbacks like Rosen don’t come along very often, but for entirely different reasons. Reasons that Elway did not recognize or just didn’t care to look for. Either way, the Broncos made a mistake, and if he hasn’t realized it already, he will after Thursday night.