Returning Fitzpatrick is eager to mentor next QB
Ryan Fitzpatrick is playing — and wants to play — in 2020.
Tua Tagovailoa would be “more than happy” if the Dolphins draft him. So can the two coexist?
Fitzpatrick was asked that very question by WQAM’s Joe Rose, as the veteran quarterback made the rounds on Radio Row
Friday morning.
“I’ve been a lot of places and worked with a lot of different guys,” Fitzpatrick said. “High draft picks, low draft picks, whatever it’s been. And for me, the thing that I’ve learned, the best thing for me to do is to go in and be myself and to continue to show my work ethic and those things and hopefully they rub off on the younger guys.
“I really enjoy helping younger guys out, because this league is about paying it forward a little bit. There were guys who helped me out when I was young. I have no problem with that.”
Fitzpatrick spoke with the media Friday for the first time since general manager Chris Grier told reporters last week the Dolphins “fully expect” Fitzpatrick back in 2020.
“I want to keep playing,” Fitzpatrick said. “Physically, you have to reevaluate everything and mentally and emotionally. It didn’t take very long for me to know, with the season we had this past year and how much fun I had out there, I want to keep playing.”
Fitzpatrick was peppered with questions.
On where the 2019 season ranks among his 15 as a pro: “This was up there. This is one of the favorite seasons that I’ve had. If you would have asked me that Week 3, 4, 5, I might have had a different answer for you. I was in a deep, dark place at that point.”
On the emergence of receivers DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki: “With a lot of guys, especially those two, confidence is such a big thing. DeVante really got it going the second half of the season. He was playing lights out, as well as any receiver in the league. And Mike was the same way. Once he finally got that first touchdown catch out of the way, because it had been however many games, and I know he knew what number it was that he hadn’t had one yet. Once he got that first one out of the way, he played some good football.
On playing for Brian Flores: “Very intense. He’s a really good football coach and I think he showed that this year. The talk at the beginning of the year with the tanking and losing a bunch of guys, that was a difficult situation for him to be thrown into as a firsttime head coach. I thought he navigated it unbelievably well. A lot of it was he had a message to the team, he stuck to it and he was aggressive in what he did to the game plan every single week, whether it was going for it on fourth down or the fake punts or the fake field goals or the onsides kicks. He showed us through the way he coached every single day and on Sunday that he was out to win, and that really rubbed off on the rest of the team.”