Ryan Fitzpatrick – September 8, 2020
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Tuesday, September 8, 2020
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick
(After the passing of your mother, what did it mean for you to get back so quickly to your teammates and barely miss any time at all and continuing your prep for Week 1?) – “There’s a lot of different responsibilities that I have and being a leader on this football team is one of them. We’ve done a great job of kind of preparing with the short time that we’ve had and we know that everything is so critical in terms of practices and the time that we have that we’re out on the field, because it has been so limited with the pandemic. It’s finally nice today to stop practicing against our defense and to get into some New England stuff and to really start paring down what we’re trying to do. This is the stuff that I really enjoy as a quarterback – the week-to-week game planning. I’m glad that we’re at this phase and we’ve made it this far.”
(The last time you played the Patriots up there, you had a fair amount of success. WR DeVante Parker had a lot of success. What was the key in going after CB Stephon Gilmore and do you think he’s going to be ready for you guys this time around?) – “Yeah. He’s a former teammate of mine and Defensive Player of the Year. (He’s) a guy that’s had a ton of success in this league and is definitely one of the top guys defensively around the league. They’re very talented on defense; very talented and experienced in the back end. So for us, it’s trying to throw to the open guy, trying to pick the best matchups. They do a great job of making sure that everything is contested and challenged on every play. We’ll have to play our best, whether it’s receivers, tight ends or backs, the way that I’m throwing the ball. Everything is going to have to be on point for us to be able to move the ball versus these guys.”
(Over the last, I guess, week or so, we had a chance to talk to a bunch of your teammates and coaches about what they see is your value and your appreciation. I was kind of struck at just how much praise everybody had for you. I think it just kind of struck me that at this stage of your career, you’ve seemed to find a home here where everybody loves you. Have you felt that? And I guess, what does that feel like for you personally, knowing you’ve been so many different places?) – “Yeah, I definitely feel the love. I think with a personal tragedy with my mom passing away, I think you feel it extra – all of the people. It was a lot of teammates and people in the building but it was a lot of people I had been in contact with almost in a past life on different teams in different cities. There were a lot of people that reached out. I’ve been feeling a lot of love lately in that regard, just people that want to let me know that they care about me and they’re thinking about me and my family, and that’s been good. In terms of the coaches, I’m about the same age as most of them, so we have more in common than some of the younger guys. (laughter) I think that’s just part of the position – part of the position that I play – being able to interact with everybody and get a good feel for everybody and spend a lot of time in all of the different rooms.”
(The support you got from Head Coach Brian Flores, we could kind of see it from a distance at the scrimmage that it looked like he really reached out to you. I can’t imagine how much that must have meant to you.) – “I think just being the head coach and leader of this team, he’s meant a lot to me and to all of us. Just the situation that I’m currently in and was going through and him going through something similar within the past year or two, just being able to sit and have somebody to talk to about it is great. I feel like Coach Flores has really grown, just as this team has really grown over the last year. Hopefully that continues and hopefully we start to see some results on the field.”
(I wanted to ask you about your weaponry. More than in past years, it seems like everybody that’s in your arsenal has a different skillset or brings something different to the table. Have you noticed that and if so, how can that impact this offense?) – “Yeah, we definitely have. We’ve got guys that can make plays in a variety of ways. I think a lot of that – especially when a new staff comes in – is learning these guys and learning the things that they’re great at, the things they need to work on and maybe some of the things that we should stay away from. One of the things that I’ve harped on since (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) got here is playing to guys’ strengths. It’s something that he does a really nice job of putting them in a great position and putting me in a great position. We have a lot of talent on the offensive end and I think being able to utilize each guy, playing to their strengths and giving them some freedom to go out there and do what they do best, that will hopefully show up here as we get going.”
(I wanted to ask you, what does it mean to you to be the starting quarterback in Week 1 in the NFL at this stage of your career?) – “It means a ton. It’s not something that I take for granted. I’ve kind of gone back and forth and been the guy and not been the guy. I know how difficult it is to earn something like this. I know how difficult it is to accept this responsibility and to go out there and to shoulder everything that I’ve got to shoulder as the starting quarterback to get these guys ready to go play. It’s the reason I still play. It’s why I love the game so much. I’m honored and I’m really excited to be able to lead this team out there on Sunday.”
(I want to go back to a question. You mentioned CB Stephon Gilmore and you had a comment last December after that game that it’s not that you necessarily don’t respect the guy you are going against, but you have ultimate confidence in a guy like WR DeVante Parker to give him chances to make plays on the football. Is there a measured approach you have to that like a certain time or a look that they give you or is it just “I’m going to trust my guys all of the time?”) – “Yeah, there’s definitely a calculated risk, but I can’t give you all of my secrets. (laughter) A lot of it does come down to that. Their best players are going to be on our best playmakers. So the way these games go, do their guys make more plays or do ours? Going into matchups like this, I just want to make sure that my guys know that I have the ultimate confidence in them, and I’m going to give them opportunities to go out there and make plays. That’s no secret to the defense. That’s no secret to my guys. That’s how we’ll figure out who is going to win the game – if our big playmakers show up and I can get them the ball or if they can’t.”
(I know it’s a “this year” deal but obviously the last game you guys played and this team played was against that team in Foxboro and you guys won. How much confidence can that help you catapult to where you guys are going Sunday from what you guys did last year?) – “We’ve got a ton of new faces. We’ve definitely been harping on this just being a new year. (It’s) a completely different team for us, a completely different team for them. I don’t know that we can draw a whole lot on that. The other aspect we haven’t talked about is no fans, fake crowd noise and how that’s going to play into it. There’s some unknowns going into this game that haven’t existed in the past that both teams will have to deal with and feel out. There’s going to be some interesting storylines and things there that we’ll have to figure out. But in terms of comparing last year to this year, we haven’t even really talked about last year’s game because it is such a new team on both sides – for us and for them.”
(I know there’s a sense of excitement going into any season but this season is obviously very different for you guys after an offseason of bringing in a whole bunch of new players compared to last offseason where it was a bunch of big-name players leaving the team. How much more exciting might this year be and how much higher might the level of confidence be?) – “There’s definitely a different feeling right now than there was last year at this exact time. I think right now there’s a great vibe in the building. I think in terms of the personalities and the guys that have been on this team, with the guys that were added to this team, everybody is pulling in the same direction right now. That’s easy to do when there’s no adversity and you haven’t played any games. We’ll figure out real quick what kind of team that we have. I think we’ve brought in the right guys. We have a great group of guys in the locker room and hopefully that adds to our success on the field of being able to get along and everybody have the same mentality and mindset.”
(Do you expect this club to be involved in the playoff discussion and playoff relevant?) – “Raised expectations is relative since the expectations last year were probably zero, right? (laughter) It’s all relative. I know that we’re excited to see what happens this year. I think there’s so much uncertainty around the league. I think I know what we have here. I think we’ve put in a lot of work and we’re gelling right now but until you get out there and do it on the field, you’ve really got no clue. Every year there’s uncertainty and this year there’s probably more than there has ever been.”
