Fitzpatrick endorses team-first approach
TAMPA — Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 11-year-old son, Brady, had the foresight to draft his dad to quarterback his fantasy-football team, and so far it has paid off. Fitzpatrick has thrown for at least 400 yards in each of the first three games and has 11 touchdowns.
But he can’t even tell his son whether he will start for the Buccaneers Sunday at Chicago.
“I can’t trust them with anything,” Fitzpatrick said of his six kids. “I guess they’ll know later in the week.”
All indications are that Fitzpatrick will make his fourth straight start Sunday against the Bears, even though Winston will be on the sideline for coach Dirk Koetter.
“I have all the respect in the world for coach Koetter, and I think every decision he makes is best on what’s best for the team,” Fitzpatrick said. “And so, for him, he’s open. He’s honest. I respect him.
“I think he respects me. He respects the guys on the team, and he has all of our respect. So as long as you have those qualities, and we know he has the team first in his mind. It’s not hard to be a team player.”
It would be hard to imagine Fitzpatrick not starting after becoming the NFL’s top passer this season and orchestrating the league’s best offense.
How will Fitzpatrick and Winston handle the role reversal?
“I think we have a great locker room,” Fitzpatrick said. “We’ve got a bunch of unselfish guys, and I think that’s important. Communication is probably the most important thing in situations like this, and just making sure everything is out there and you’re open and you’re honest with that. I think everybody can respect that.”
As for the quarterback position in the NFL, the league is sticking with its officiating emphasis on hits, including those in which the tackler uses all or most of his body weight when falling on the quarterback.
NFL football operations chief Troy Vincent said Thursday that the powerful competition committee has clarified to game officials the techniques used in such hits, which have been a source of debate through the first three weeks of the schedule. Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews has been called for three of them, two of which appeared to be normal tackles.
A lack of consistency on such calls also has been a source of contention throughout the league. In its regularly scheduled conference call, the committee reviewed video of such plays from 2017 and this year.
“In reiterating its position on quarterback protection,” Vincent said, “the committee determined there would be no changes to the point of emphasis approved this spring, or to the rule of which the body weight provision has been in place since 1995.”