FITZMAGIC for now, but for HOW LONG?
Veteran Buccaneers QB has long NFL history of blowing hot and cold
How the heck did 13 years of FitzTragic turn into this mindblowing FitzMagic?
Pretty much everybody who follows the NFL is asking that question this week: How could “temporary” Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in Weeks 1 and 2 possibly scorch the New Orleans and Philadelphia defences each for 400-plus passing yards and four touchdowns?
Fitzpatrick is the first QB in NFL history to turn that statistical trick to open a season.
That this oft-derided but stubbornly defiant passer is the first NFL QB to do it, two months shy of his 37th birthday, in a career that puts the capital J in “Journeyman,” is nothing short of astonishing.
Well, to most of us. Not to longtime NFL quarterbacks coach David Lee, who worked with “Fitz” in 2012 and helped him to correct two key, limiting flaws in his delivery.
“In a nutshell, Fitz has figured it out,” Lee says. “He has figured out over time who he is as a quarterback, his strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly, what it will take in order for him to win on the field.”
More on Lee’s insightful takes on Fitzpatrick in a moment. But first, to refresh.
Six NFL teams have given up on Fitzpatrick since 2006, along basically the same “glad to be rid of him” trajectory.
The Harvard grad is a really smart, try-hard guy. Understands all the concepts. Reads defences well. Great locker-room guy. Maxes out in all the intangibles. It’s just that he bottoms out in all the tangibles, eventually, with his popgun arm and eroding accuracy.
Seems the longer he stays anywhere, the more he plays but the worse he gets, and the smaller he shows up in big moments.
Teams and fans alike inevitably tend to conclude that with Fitzpatrick at the helm, everybody’s ceiling is lowered.
Indeed, it’s as though the very moment Fitzpatrick convinces a team and its fan base that, “Hey, ya know what? We just might be able to go all the way with this guy!” he kind of falls apart. Reverts to baseline. Midnight strikes. FitzTragic.
That’s the popular quick take, anyway, of Fitzpatrick’s history as an off-and-on NFL starter with the (then) St. Louis Rams (2005-07, three starts), Cincinnati Bengals (2007-08, 12 starts), Buffalo Bills (2009-12, 46 starts), Tennessee Titans (2013, nine starts), Houston Texans (2014, 12 starts), New York Jets (2015-16, 27 starts) and last year with the Buccaneers as a two-game injury fill-in.
The above 13 seasons did not remotely portend the trendshattering FitzMagic we’ve seen the past two weeks. His career totals before this month: 50-70-1 as a starter, 181 touchdowns, 137 interceptions, and an average 81.1 passer rating. The FitzMagic nickname blew up on social media Sunday, first after the thickly bearded 36-year-old’s second consecutive Clint Eastwood-type gunslinger performance — which for the second straight time would earn him recognition as NFC offensive player of the week — and then the typically humble, all-vanilla Fitzpatrick showing up at his post-game news conference flashing ultracool shades, a button-down, hip shirt and a thick gold chain around his neck.
Remember, until a couple weeks ago Bucs fans just hoped Fitzpatrick wouldn’t stink for three weeks, until regular Jameis Winston returns Tuesday from his NFL-imposed, three-game sexual assault suspension.
Now, everyone is wondering how the heck the Bucs could possibly bench Fitzpatrick, even for Winston, the highly talented 2015 No. 1 overall draft pick. That is, presuming Fitzpatrick plays anything but wretchedly when the Bucs host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
One football coach who isn’t surprised by FitzMagic is the aforementioned Lee. A college QBs coach or offensive co-ordinator from 1975-2002 — at UT Martin, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, New Mexico, Arkansas, UTEP and Rice — Lee has coached mostly in the NFL since then. He is renowned for fixing and rebuilding Tony Romo’s throwing mechanics.
Lee then worked with Chad Pennington and the Miami Dolphins from 2008-10, and in 2012 was brought in by then-Bills head coach Chan Gailey to see if he could tweak Fitzpatrick’s deficient mechanics.
“Ryan had a ton of interceptions (a career-high 23) the year before I got to Buffalo,” said Lee, who is not coaching this year. “I made him look at them on tape and he didn’t like it. And he’ll let you know. Fitz doesn’t like being critiqued a whole lot. He’s very proud, very smart and you better know what you’re talking about with him.”
When on-field workouts began in spring 2012, Lee quickly diagnosed two things holding Fitzpatrick back: his lower-body fundamentals, and his body-aiming on medium- to long-depth passes to his left.
“First, it was just a matter of, you know he’s a right-hander, so getting his back right foot perpendicular to the target. And then getting his lead, or step, left foot just slightly left of the intended flight line of the ball so that his right hip could fire. He had to get his right foot in the proper place, then get his left foot planted to the left of where he’d been planting it, because he was blocking out his right hip. In other words, when you’re throwing the ball and your right arm is whipping down, you want your right hip to fire at the same time, to access the power in the right hip. That was the first thing.”
Within 10 days, Lee said, everyone could see “the extra juice and velocity he was getting on his throw, as well as the extra distance.”
The second fix was that Fitzpatrick really struggled with accuracy on longer throws to his left. Especially right-to-left crosses.
“He was never framing up his body far enough to the left,” Lee said.
“I told him he was missing them. And he said, ‘Coach, I can’t throw that route,’ or something. I said, ‘Of course you can, but you’ve got to get yourself framed up.’ He said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He (told a reporter) he’d never been coached in his lower body before. And I’m passionate about the fundamentals.
“Anyhow, the trigger word that I used in his head — because Fitz is so flippin’ smart — I said, ‘Fitz, you’ve got to over-open your stance. Because what you think is open to your left is not near open enough. You’ve got to over-open.’ And then he started hitting those throws. Let me tell you, he was like an eighth-grader, he was so excited. This was in the spring of 2012. I’ll never forget it. I remember Chan telling me, ‘Dave, you’ve got him better.’”
By the following spring, however, Gailey, Lee and Fitzpatrick were all gone. Lee has landed three other NFL jobs since, coaching QBs, most recently with Cleveland last year.
Did Fitzpatrick take Lee’s fixes to heart thereafter?
“Absolutely. That’s all I’m looking for on television when I watch him play,” Lee said. “I tell my wife about it, to the point my wife could coach quarterbacks.”
While Fitzpatrick’s completion percentage is only a smidgen better since 2012 (60.3 per cent) compared to before (59.2 per cent), his TD -to-interception ratio is appreciably better (1.57to-1, compared to 1.24-to-1 before 2012), as are his TDs per start (1.64 compared to 1.31) and yards per start (245 compared to 210).
Over the six years since he worked with Fitzpatrick, Lee said he sees the following additional reasons for his uncanny ability to wrest starting NFL starting jobs and display flashes of excellence, most notably during his first of two years with the Jets in 2015, and this month.
“His ability to quickly detect blitzes and redirect the protection to avoid minus yardage plays from the exotic third-down pressures. This comes from his extraordinary intellect, combined with great work ethic in the area of film study ... He has the right makeup. He is so tough. You can’t get him out of a game. That meshes with genuine confidence. Fitz believes in himself.”
Another huge factor in Fitzpatrick’s insane production is the level of receiving talent around him in Tampa Bay, starting with wideouts DeSean Jackson and Mike Evans, and fast, powerful tight end O.J. Howard.
“Fitz has never had skill around him like he’s got right now. He’s got guys that can get down the field in a hurry, and he doesn’t have to throw it 60 yards. That goes back to playing into his strengths, which is great timing. Now he’s got the accuracy. He can locate the ball where he wants to.”
He has the right makeup! He is so tough. You can’t get him out of a game. That meshes with genuine confidence. Fitz believes in himself.