Ryan Fitzpatrick – August 24, 2020
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Monday, August 24, 2020
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick
(I don’t know whether you heard the Dolphins are having a news conference right now about plans to have up to 13,000 people in the stadium for the first game. What’s your reaction to the idea at this moment in our world of having spectators and how much of a difference do you think 13,000 people can make?) – “I played a lot of games in college with less fans than that, (laughter) so I might be a good one to ask about that. I just heard that walking over here; so I’m excited. I think just from everything that I’ve seen within this organization – the day to day – I know that they made that decision with everybody’s health and safety as the No. 1 priority, so I think I’m very comfortable with that and knowing that they’re doing it for the right reasons and they’re going to do it the right way. It’s huge for us as players to have some noise, to have some crowd reaction. It’s a big thing. It’ll be interesting as that plays out all year long – which stadiums do, which don’t – but as players, we’re excited to get fans out there cheering for us.”
(I wanted to ask you about the growth you’ve seen so far from WR Preston Williams in Year 2 here coming into the early stages of the second season. He produced a lot last year before his injury obviously, but what do you see here in the first week or two of practice that tells you that he can get right back to that level and beyond?) – “Preston has a great guy to watch, first of all, in DeVante Parker and the way that he works and goes about his business. Preston is very unique, just in terms of his physical qualities – the height, the weight, the speed, how nimble he is, all that stuff, his ability to track the ball – and having to sit out, you always kind of look for the silver lining or maybe the positives in a situation that isn’t so positive; so him getting hurt last year, he was also just able to take a step back and watch a little bit and learn the game a little bit more and I know he worked his butt off all offseason and that was really apparent as we came back, just in seeing him and all the work that he put in, and he’s done a great job. I think his confidence is high right now and that’s important for those guys, and rightfully so because he’s playing really well. We’re excited to him out there healthy and going and he’s doing a good job.”
(Between WR Preston Williams and WR DeVante Parker, does it kind of remind you of what you had in 2018 in Tampa Bay, being able to throw the football to a couple big receivers then?) – “Everywhere is a little bit different, but having two big guys on the outside with those qualities – they can go up and get the ball, they’re good route-runners, they’re smart players – I think that makes it difficult for a defense not just being able to key in on one guy. The way that we’re working right now, the way that those guys are showing up every day, it’s given our offense and I think our team a lot of confidence going forward.”
(Obviously you’ve done a lot of these, I guess, quarterback competitions, so to speak. It seems like you guys are in another one even though you’re the clear frontrunner. How do you kind of navigate that element of it as you get close to the start of the season?) – “You just go out and every single day try to do your best. The meeting rooms are the same thing, but when you’re getting reps – whether it’s ones, twos or threes or whether we’re throwing one-on-ones with different receivers – every time, you know there’s going to come a point in time where if the guy is on the roster, then you’re going to be throwing to him throughout the year whether somebody goes down in a game or is out for a few weeks. So I always make sure whoever I’m getting the rep with, that we’re on the same page, that we’re speaking the same language. We’ve got a great group of guys here right now that are working really hard and I just try to take advantage of every rep that I get; not just in the team periods, but some of those one-on-one throws as well, just making sure we have good communication.”
(I wanted to ask you from the time this coronavirus thing popped up in March, did you at any time think about opting out?) – “That’s a good question. I think everybody took a step back just to evaluate, do the risk-reward, and it wasn’t really heavy on my mind. I think us as players, we all put a ton of faith in this organization that they were going to do things the right way and that was easy for me in seeing how this organization is run and how it operated last year. It was easy for me to know that they were going to put the players first and that our health and safety – not just for us, but if our families need anything – that they’re going to do it the right way, so that part of it for me wasn’t that difficult of a decision. That being said, everybody has a different personal opinion. Everybody has a different perspective. Everybody has different things that they’re going home to, so there was no pressure put on anybody to go one way or the other, and we certainly respect Albert (Wilson) and Allen (Hurns) and the decisions that they made. There had to be a date that they put on it to cut off whether you’re going to be in or out, so we’re not looking back on that anymore.”
(Just to piggy-back off that, if you had opted out per se, it probably would have maybe been the end of your career? I don’t know if maybe taking a year off and returning next year would be something that you would want to do. Is that something that kind of played a factor into it, this being so late a stage in your career that you didn’t want to opt out? You wanted to just play?) – “No, not really.”
(You got obviously a taste of WR DeVante Parker and WR Preston Williams together last year for I guess a few games. What’s sort of the potential for you guys as an offense with those two out there together?) – “There’s a lot of things we’re still working at. With no preseason games, not going up against any other teams, we’re going to have to try to figure out early on in the season what our identity is going to be and the strengths and weaknesses of the football team and what we can lean on. But we know that we’ve got two good guys on the outside. We’ve got a great competition going on – guys on the inside right now fighting for playing time right now – and our backs our doing a great job as well, so as the season goes on, we’re going to figure out who we are and play to our strengths and I think that’s something that’ll be constantly evolving early on, just as we figure out where we’re at as a team.”
(I wanted to ask you your thoughts on how QB Tua Tagovailoa has hung in there the first couple weeks. He seems to have shown some real improvement the last couple days.) – “Yeah, he’s doing a great job and I know it’s your guys’ job to look at and evaluate every single day and every throw; but it’s something for us as quarterbacks and for me, I just like to see progress and sometimes it’s not necessarily a completion, but it’s the thought process and making sure the ball is going to the right spot at the right time. Sometimes there’s not going to be – some things are not going to look pretty, but it’s the right decision and that’s, for me, a step in the right direction. Sometimes you’re going to see a long touchdown or something and it wasn’t necessarily the right play, so you guys are going to laud it, but maybe it wasn’t what we’re trying to get done. There’s a lot of different parts of the evaluation process and for me, I just like to see first of all, confidence; and if you make a mistake, get out there, put it behind you and go play the next play. I like that a lot about him and then secondly, just the progression of is he going to the right place? Is he going on time? We’re making a lot of progress in that area, too. I think that’s the offense in general, and everybody getting a better grasp of it as we’re moving forward. Receivers are doing a good job getting in the right spot and quarterbacks are doing a decent job in finding them as well.”
(I wanted your opinion on the Dolphins are going to attempt to host 13 fans in the stands. Your thought process on fans actually being out there?) – “Okay, hold up. Thirteen or 13,000? (laughter)”
(13,000.) – “Oh, 13,000. Okay, because I was going to say, I was going to try to get my family out there, so then that would have only left – let’s see – like, five more fans? (laughter) Hey, I’m excited about it. I commented on this – I think you might have missed the first question – but basically, what I said was I’m excited about having fans in the stands. I know that the Dolphins organization, they’re going to do it the right way in terms of the safety guidelines and everything that’s recommended; but as players, we want fans out there, so if we could do it in a safe way, then the more the merrier. And that was music to our ears today when we heard that coming off the field”
