Ryan Fitzpatrick

[Mile High Mania]

Side rant...

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.

[Rams Fan]

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.

His first HC in the NFL was Martz.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

His first HC in the NFL was Martz.

And?

Because Martz was in full flameout mode at that point, was he not? He'd pretty well brain-raped Marc Bulger (poor bastard probably still sees unblocked blitzers when he closes his eyes...)

I've never seen an OC who seemed to openly loathe his quarterbacks the way Martz did, especially when he bought into his own legend. The guy was just leaving those QBs exposed every snap and getting them absolutely smoked.

Hell, Martz wasn't even the Rams head coach by the time Fitzpatrick saw the field. Fitz didn't play until week 11 and by then the immortal Joe Vitt was running the show.

Then 2 years with Marvin Lewis (as Carson Palmer's backup before Palmer got hurt). Then Perry Fewell, Dick Jauron and Chan Gailey in Buffalo.

Now Gailey I'd consider a fairly bright guy, but I also think of him as a guy who is more adept at getting production out of athletic passers and Fitz was never anything resembling that guy.

Then Mike Munchak in TN, Bill O'Brien in Houston, Todd Bowles in NYJ and Dirk Koetter in TB.

Munchak and Bowles were overmatched clowns. BoB is still a mongoloid reerun and he was ESPECIALLY so in his early years at Houston. Dirk Koetter is...interesting. I don't think he's an idiot, but the Falcons got better after he left and aren't improved upon his return. At some point he developed a reputation as a premier offensive mind but...I'm not really sure why.

I mean let's be fair here, Ryan Fitzpatrick has had a murderers row of goober HCs and has only once had a team give him a contract with the idea of building a team around what he does well.

He's been dealt a lot of bad hands and has made quite a bit from them.

[Beef Supreme]

I love me some Fitzmagic. Doesn't matter which way the pendulum falls, good or bad, it's always entertaining.

[Mile High Mania]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

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?

I think a 30 for 30 type of documentary would be interesting. Again, when you look at his body of work ... it's pretty impressive and I agree with those that wonder what his career would be like on the right team and under the right leadership, which is odd to say for a guy on his 8th team.

[EPodolak]

I've listened to him interviewed when he was at Harvard. With his intellect I predicted he'd be able to problem-solve his way to a respectable career.

[NJChiefsFan]

Originally Posted by EPodolak

I've listened to him interviewed when he was at Harvard. With his intellect I predicted he'd be able to problem-solve his way to a respectable career.

He never really wanted to be that Alex Smith type. Or at least to me. Despite his intellect he really wants to sling it sometimes and that's where he gets in trouble.

[jjchieffan]

I wonder what he would have done had Reid gone after him instead of Smith when he got here? I mean, nobody got the kind of production from Smith that Andy did. I bet that Reid could have worked some real magic with his gigabytes.

[Mennonite]

Ryan Fitzpatrick could become the fourth NFL QB to lead his team in rushing since 1972:


https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2...ng-since-1972/

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by jjchieffan

I wonder what he would have done had Reid gone after him instead of Smith when he got here? I mean, nobody got the kind of production from Smith that Andy did. I bet that Reid could have worked some real magic with his gigabytes.

I could see Reid turning Fitzpatrick into a better version of Matt Moore. But I think people see too much of Brett Favre when he's probably a lot more cutler. Brett Favre threw lots of INTs in games he otherwise dominated. Fitzpatrick seems to have some great games coupled with some WTF games. Maybe consistency with a good coach fixes some of that but I just don't know that you'll ever beat that huge boom bust thing he's got going on. I said in another thread that Jameis seems to be heading that same path.

[Chris Meck]

I love me some Fitzmagic. Excellent veteran back-up and always entertaining. Fantastic locker room guy.

but as a back-up. Don't hitch your wagon.

[Mennonite]

Obligatory bump