Fitzpatrick explains Tua’s ‘elite’ qualities
Ryan Fitzpatrick is no longer the Dolphins’ backup quarterback, but he does as good a job as anyone could in explaining why there’s hope that Tua Tagovailoa can be a long-term NFL success.
During an appearance on
Ross Tucker’s podcast on Monday, Fitzpatrick — who signed with Washington last week — discussed Tagovailoa’s two elite qualities.
“The two things that really stick out to me about Tua is he has elite accuracy; that’s very important,” Fitzpatrick said.
“He’s going to learn through this offseason — he’s going to get continuity with [new offensive coordinators and returning Dolphins assistants George Godsey and Eric Studesville] — where to go with the ball, how to eliminate things pre-snap to unleash that elite accuracy.
“And he throws with anticipation and that is something you don’t see with quarterbacks coming from college to the NFL. I’m a huge Tua fan. My kids love Tua. Sometimes they play with him on Madden. Sometimes they play with me.
“I’m looking forward to big things from him. I think he’s going to do great. As far as being a leader or a guy that people can follow, he has all those qualities.”
Fitzpatrick found it “amazing how much criticism and different things have been thrown [Tagovailoa’s] way. It’s very difficult to play quarterback in the NFL. We keep forgetting as fans that fact.
“The guy was a rookie last year and came in and went 6-3. We have to have a little bit of patience. I think he’s going to do great things.”
NFL TV DEAL PRIMER
Asking and answering questions about the NFL’s 11-year, $113 billion media rights contracts that were announced late last week:
What’s the biggest news
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here? The awarding of the 15game Thursday night package to Amazon Prime Video — beginning in 2023 — marks the most significant sports deal in history involving a streaming service.
SI.com reported that Fox is willing to negotiate an exit from the Thursday night package a year earlier; if that’s the case, Amazon could carry the Thursday games beginning in 2022. The league has the authority to give Amazon a “Black Friday” game because it won’t have the Thanksgiving night game.
The move of major sports to streaming services was inevitable but still feels a bit jarring. Online video has grown in popularity during the pandemic; streaming video subscriptions worldwide now top one billion.
Over-the-air broadcast networks will air Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” games in the cities of the participating teams. (So if the Dolphins play the Jaguars on Thursday night, the game will be available in the South Florida and Jacksonville markets on free TV.)
So how do you access
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Amazon Prime if you’re unfamiliar with the service and what will it cost? Prime Video is included if you’re a member of Amazon’s Prime program, which offers accelerated shipping of Amazon purchases.
Prime has more than 150 million members domestically, compared with Netflix’s 200 million-plus subscribers worldwide.
For those who don’t like to watch live sports on a phone or tablet, there are ways to watch Amazon Prime Video, including by connecting a streaming player to your TV. The current cost: $12.99 per month or $119 per year.
What about NFL Network
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simulcasts of those Thursday games? That won’t be happening after Fox’s exit from Thursday nights, because Amazon has exclusivity.
But the NFL will create a small package of NFL Networkonly games, largely to fulfill NFL Net’s contractual obligations with cable systems and satellite providers.
Any NFL TV changes in
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2021, beyond the likely addition of a 17th game and Week 18 of the season? Yes. ESPN and ABC will simulcast two Saturday games on the final weekend of the season, beginning this upcoming season.
And then beginning in 2022, ABC will get one “Monday Night Football” game different from the games on ESPN; that ABC MNF package will expand to three games in 2023.
Besides those three ABC
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“Monday Night Football” games and the final weekend Saturday games, what else is ABC/ESPN/Disney getting?
Lots of goodies: Two Super Bowls — in 2026 and 2030 — plus a divisional playoff game for the first time (in addition to the wild card game that ESPN already has been carrying) and — thankfully! — a new flex schedule element on “Monday Night Football.”
Beginning in 2023, games can be moved from Sunday to Monday night beginning in Week 12.
And ESPN gets to air one game exclusively on its streaming service, ESPN Plus. That game likely will be an overseas Sunday game.
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Will the three ABC and 17 ESPN Monday night football games conflict?
They might overlap somewhat, but start times haven’t been determined. It’s possible one game could start at 7 and one at 8:20 p.m., but nothing is set.
What’s new about CBS and ●
Fox packages besides the higher rights fees? While CBS still has the AFC package and
Fox has the NFC package, there will be more NFC games on CBS and more AFC games on Fox — a trend that began with the creation of cross-flexing in recent years.
Also, all CBS broadcasts will be streamed live on its streaming service, Paramount Plus. And all Fox games can be carried on streaming service Tubi.
What will change with
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NBC’s Sunday night coverage? This wasn’t part of the new rights deal, but Mike Tirico reportedly is in line to take over play-by-play of “Sunday Night Football” in 2022. NBC has declined to discuss this because of the sensitive nature of it.
It’s quite possible, if not likely, that Al Michaels’ final NFL game for NBC could be the February 2022 Super Bowl in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, NBC’s streaming service Peacock will simulcast all of NBC’s Sunday night NFL games and will get exclusive rights for an undetermined number of games.
Where is Sunday Ticket
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headed? DirecTV has it for two more years but has expressed no interest in renewing after that point. ESPN has confirmed interest but the talks are still at the preliminary stage.
NOTABLE
Fox and the Marlins assure that their new TV deal will be finalized in time for a full season of telecasts, beginning with the April 1 opener against Tampa Bay.
The Marlins will have one national TV game: against the Mets in September on FS-1.