They look fairly good. The brown edges and tips are from the long winter we had. The ground was frozen for several months and it created a winter drought condition in the plant. Make sure there is no puddling near the plants when it rains. They need good drainage. The leaves have a slight yellowish cast meaning the plants could use some fertilizer this spring. Hollytone is your best bet. Use at half the rate on the package and only fertilize in the spring. Good luck!

I think it's getting too much sun for starters.

In certain parts of NJ you wouldn't have to turn over too many rocks to find a 'Roseum Elegans' in full sun; there's one right down the street from me in northeastern Maryland. The so-called ironclads are pretty tough and light part shade might be optimal but they can usually survive full sun over most of their typical growing range. In the DC area it's much, much less common to see them in full sun but I have seen it before. For example at an office building in Reston there was one in a hell strip...yep! Well, it was a wide hell strip, like 20' or so, and it looks like an adjacent shade tree had died. It struggled - seemed to have dieback here and there - but lasted for a few years when I worked in that area. It was probably 5'X5'. I used to spot it driving by and didn't know rhodies as well back then, but it had the typical mauvy flowers in spring. (in the late 90s I made an ill-fated attempt to grow some rare species from RSF, but the real obsession didn't start until I visited Rarefind in 2006) Anyhow last time I was in that neck of the woods, which was years ago (!), I noticed the whole area had been re-landscaped and the 'Roseum Elegans' was gone.
If you want a rhodie in full sun in DC btw, I think 'Charles Loomis' or most of the other southgates/hyper hybrids should be OK. Mine is in almost full sun and laughed at the hot years of 2010, 2011 and 2012. Heat seems to make it grow faster LOL.

In addition to the above, I would move it to a better location at the proper time for your location. They move rather easily. Roseum Elegans get big, and it's too close to the hardscape. I'm always amazed that people plant plants as if they aren't going to get larger.
I think some of the leaves you removed were old leaves and were going to fall off anyway. Removing them does no harm and makes the plant look much better, especially on young plants. Cold damage usually has the most impact on the younger, outer, leaves.
Mike