Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Friday without Fitz
Disappointing day for QBs should make us appreciate starter more
DAVIE — Who remembers that Christmas morning when you just knew a Nintendo 64, or a Cabbage Patch doll or Bratz doll would be under the tree, and it would satisfy all your childhood desires?
The gift you wanted and needed, the one you absolutely had to have to complete your life, was going to be the next gift opened.
But gift after gift, box after box, all you found were a new pack of socks and some underwear.
Nothing wrong with socks and underwear. You probably needed them, but the gift you desired didn’t come that holiday season. Disappointment ruled your day.
Well ... (insert deep sigh) ... that’s exactly how I felt watching the Miami Dolphins practice on Friday, which happened to be the team’s first session without quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who is away from the team handling a personal matter.
We’ve craved a young franchise quarterback for so long, I just knew this was the year. And Friday would be the practice Tua Tagovailoa or Josh Rosen would raise their hand as if to say, “I got this!”
I just knew Friday was going to be the session both of these young quarterbacks, who each have first-round pedigrees, would convince the coaches the future is now.
But incompletion after incompletion, would-be sack after would-be sack, interception after interception taught me Dolphins fans might have to wait on the gift they crave.
Friday’s session without Fitzpatrick was so dismal it made me
conclude that the grizzled veteran with 15 years of NFL experience might have been holding this offense together the first week. Maybe Fitzpatrick was keeping things respectable for practices, because the performance Rosen and Tagovailoa produced in his absence might be the worst session I’ve seen in the Brian Flores era.
I’m talking first seven games of 2019 bad, 0-7 record bad!
“They’re young. Rosen’s young . ... The same as Tua [Tagovailoa],” Flores said before Friday’s session. “We’re looking for leadership. We’re looking for communication. We’re looking for someone making good decisions — consistently making good decisions.”
Keep looking, because none of that showed up on Friday.
To be fair, not all of the offense’s issues were on the quarterbacks.
Their pocket wasn’t always clean. The offensive line is young, and three rookies — Austin Jackson, Solomon Kindley and Robert Hunt — are cutting their teeth as they get tested for starting roles. They’ve each been been beaten from time to time. That’s to be expected. There were clearly chemistry and communication issues between the quarterbacks and their receivers and tight ends, because far too many passes were thrown to an area where no offensive target was anywhere in sight.
The lack of talent at receiver is an issue I warned about about earlier this week, and unless some youngster steps forward and starts blossoming (or established veteran is signed), this issue won’t go away.
Unlike Fitzpatrick, who has run coordinator Chan Gailey’s offense for five seasons during their time together at the Buffalo Blls and the New York Jets, Rosen and Tagovailoa are just learning this supposedly user-friendly offense. Even Gailey admits it’s going to take the quarterbacks, if not the entire team, some time to grasp it.
But watching Rosen and Tagovailoa behind the wheel of the first- and second-team offense for a day encouraged me to buckle my seat belt tight and has me impatiently awaiting Fitzpatrick’s return from whatever private matter he and his family are dealing with.
I want Tagovailoa, or Rosen, to lead this franchise like Dan Marino did during his Hall of Fame tenure in the ’80s and ’90s. And I’m aware that expecting them to shine in their first practice with an elevated role is the stuff of fantasies.
But what I saw on Friday was a nightmare, and one I’d like to wake up from.
This doesn’t mean that the light bulb won’t turn on for either quarterbacks, and that they’ll never take their arm strength and intellect (Rosen), accuracy and anticipation (Tagovailoa) and deliver sensational performances.
What it means is that both don’t seem ready for the call up just yet, and they each need some more time to get adjusted to the players around them, and acclimated with the new offense they’re learning.
It also means that Fitzpatrick seemingly has a calming effect on the offense that this franchise still needs, and we better learn to appreciate it, at least for the first couple more weeks, or months if/when he eventually returns.