Buddy of mine and I were talking fantasy football players and this guy came up. If you look at his stats and career, he may be the greatest journeyman backup QB of all-time. It's proven you're not going to win with him as the consistent starter, but the dude has had one hell of a career.
Started 135 games - terrible W/L ratio @ 53-81-1 (8 teams)
31,623 yards
203 TDs / 159 INTs
Compare that to someone like, I dunno ... Aikman. (no, not suggesting he's better than Aikman, but it supports the 'crazy stats' argument of the last 20 years)
Started 165 games - W/L of 94-71 (1 team)
32,942 yards
165 TDs / 141 INTs
30 fewer games, almost the same yards with 38 more TDs and 18 more INTs.
During the summer, I read an article talking about the great journeyman career of Josh McCown... he doesn't touch Fitzpatrick. Fitz is up there with Krieg, Deberg and Collins (all 6 teams) - even Vinny T was with 7 teams... and Fitz has banked over $58M in 14 years. Not too shabby with over $1M per career win.
Anyway - back to your regularly scheduled program. And, no ... :-) this is not an endorsement for Denver's next journeyman in 2020. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buehler445:
Yeah no. Wasn't he supposed to make the Jets and Bills contenders when they had decent teams otherwise?
I don't think he was even supposed to start for the Jets. They were like 4-12 with Geno under center and he was supposed to be the veteran competition for Smith.
Then he took the job and the Jets went 10-6.
Buffalo was a similar situation; they were profoundly mediocre in 2008 and had Trent Edwards at quarterback (after Losman busted out). They signed Fitzgerald and were...still profoundly mediocre. It wasn't as though Perry Fewell is an offensive mastermind there. And that's the BEST situation he ever found himself in.
He never had a truly good spot to shine and did well in a number of situations where nobody expected him to. Some slightly better franchise luck and he could've been something more than the journeyman he turned into. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
I don't think he was even supposed to start for the Jets. They were like 4-12 with Geno under center and he was supposed to be the veteran competition for Smith.
Then he took the job and the Jets went 10-6.
Buffalo was a similar situation; they were profoundly mediocre in 2008 and had Trent Edwards at quarterback (after Losman busted out). They signed Fitzgerald and were...still profoundly mediocre. It wasn't as though Perry Fewell is an offensive mastermind there. And that's the BEST situation he ever found himself in.
He never had a truly good spot to shine and did well in a number of situations where nobody expected him to. Some slightly better franchise luck and he could've been something more than the journeyman he turned into.
From what I remember he had the opportunity to take the Jets to the playoffs, then blew it in the final game of the regular season. He has one of those 3-4 int games [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Fitzpatrick's career would've have been very different, IMO, had he been blessed by going to an organization with a great HC/OC. Imagine if he'd been mentored by the likes of Sean Payton, one of the Shannahans, or even Andy Reid. He has the intelligence, skill sets, arm talent, and the moxie you want from a QB. He just never had the right coaching and/or weapons to maximize his talents.
Every bit of this
But at this point he should be considered the premier backup QB in the league... I bet Miami keeps him around another year to be the bridge for whoever they draft this year [Reply]
Originally Posted by Deberg_1990:
From what I remember he had the opportunity to take the Jets to the playoffs, then blew it in the final game of the regular season. He has one of those 3-4 int games
Not impossible.
But he still got them to 10-6 after being 4-12 the year prior.
Fitzpatrick seems like a fun person that is probably a hoot of a teammate. That time he came out in a teammates bling and shades was awesome.
As far as the on the field player, from a production stand point he seems like the guy that is going to keep your team at or just above .500.
The worst part is he is not bad enough to get a team into the top 5 to draft his replacement without some team help nor is he good enough to get his team to the SB. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chief Roundup:
Fitzpatrick seems like a fun person that is probably a hoot of a teammate. That time he came out in a teammates bling and shades was awesome.
As far as the on the field player, from a production stand point he seems like the guy that is going to keep your team at or just above .500.
The worst part is he is not bad enough to get a team into the top 5 to draft his replacement without some team help nor is he good enough to get his team to the SB.
Once a month he’s the second coming of Johnny Unitas
Once a month he’s the second coming of a Rex Grossman
The other two weeks he’s just kinda hanging in there as a manager
Originally Posted by Chief Roundup:
Fitzpatrick seems like a fun person that is probably a hoot of a teammate. That time he came out in a teammates bling and shades was awesome.
As far as the on the field player, from a production stand point he seems like the guy that is going to keep your team at or just above .500.
The worst part is he is not bad enough to get a team into the top 5 to draft his replacement without some team help nor is he good enough to get his team to the SB.
NFL Network does biographies of big stars that we're sick of, and they should be doing biographies on guys like Fitzpatrick. How did he get into Harvard? What was his initial career plan? When did he start thinking he could be an NFL player (because he didn't go to Harvard with that plan, I bet). And what's it like to be a Harvard alum in the NFL? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Easy 6:
Once a month he’s the second coming of Johnny Unitas
Once a month he’s the second coming of a Rex Grossman
The other two weeks he’s just kinda hanging in there as a manager
Starter IQ
Backup talent
Here are the first four games of Ryan Fitzpatrick's career:
Game 1 - Came off the bench for an injured quarterback while trailing 24-3. Became the fifth player to throw for 300 yards in his NFL debut (and three of those four won Super Bowls or NFL championships). Led the team to a 33-27 overtime victory by throwing a 56-yard touchdown pass.