Ryan Fitzpatrick – November 27, 2019
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Wednesday, November 27, 2019
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick
(Question of the day – your favorite Thanksgiving dish?) – “It’s always right around my birthday, so Thanksgiving is a huge holiday for me. I really enjoy it. Now I don’t know how people say it here but I’ve always said ‘(puh-cahn)’ pie, but ‘(PEE-can) pie?’ I’ve got to go pecan pie for sure.”
(Players obviously have raved about you over the years in terms of how you get to know them personally – teammates – and how you spend time with them. What do you believe has been the value of that in terms of how it could translate on the field over the course of your career?) – “I think chemistry matters. Chemistry has a lot of different aspects to it, but one of those is getting to know people and especially as a quarterback – I don’t know if ‘dealing’ with is the right word – but dealing with receivers and tight ends and running backs and different personalities; not everybody responds the same way, so you’ve got to find what makes each person tick and what they respond to. I just think over the years, that’s something that I’ve come to learn in playing with so many personalities, is you have to figure out when to challenge guys and when to just talk to guys. There’s a different way to handle each individual person.”
(Along those lines, you seem to have a good relationship with TE Mike Gesicki. Is that accurate and how did that come about?) – “Yeah, we get along real well. I just think in terms of personality, in some ways we’re very similar and (I) just enjoy hanging out with him. He’s a guy that, in terms of guys that I’m close with on the team, he’s definitely near the top.”
(TE Mike Gesicki playing better this year than he did last year. Is that you? Is that comfort? Is that his second year in the league? Why do you think that is?) – “I wasn’t here last year, obviously, so it’s hard to comment on last year; but from this year, even from training camp to now and even from the beginning of the season to now, he’s worked extremely hard. I think playing tight end, playing receiver – it’s very difficult as a young guy to come in and understand all the nuances to the positions, so I think he has shown great growth even from not even last year, but from when I first saw him to now. A lot of that is hard work. A lot of it is seeing in practice or seeing it in a game and being able to recall that and learn from it. He’s done a nice job with all that, but I think there are very few rookies that have come in that I have seen at the position – tight end or receiver – that have fared very well just with all the different things that are difficult and intricacies in those positions.”
(A similar set of questions for you. Related to WR DeVante Parker, you’ve had so many – I don’t have to tell you – so many receivers go down with injuries and yet the guy who’s had a huge number of injury problems throughout his career has been healthy all year. What has DeVante shown you this season and do you ever get more than two words out of him because we don’t?) – “(laughter) Well again, I didn’t know a whole lot about DeVante’s past other than playing against him and seeing him or whatever; so what I can I guess talk about is what I’ve seen since I’ve been here. (He’s a) hard-working guy, super consistent, just kind of puts his head down and goes to work. He’ll make a joke every now and again. He’ll laugh every now and again, so there’s a human side to him, too. I said it a few weeks ago in terms of him being the most consistent guy we’ve had on offense all year-long, and he just continues to do a great job. Since I’ve been here, it’s been from Day 1. (During the) offseason he was super impressive with all the things he did and that’s carried over into the season.”
(This team has been – one of the most important things for the season is to identify and develop a core group moving forward that they can build around – who have been a few guys on this team that have surprised you that have kind of come out of nowhere? Obviously WR Preston Williams was one but he hasn’t played in a while.) – “I think from the beginning, Preston was the big one – a guy that (was) undrafted and undrafted for whatever reason he was – that really from Day 1 popped; and again a guy – talk about DeVante (Parker), Preston was the same way in terms of (he) really jumped out early, worked hard every day, (had a) smile on his face. He’s a guy I’m very excited for him and his future and whatever that holds. I know it’ll be bright. He’s already in here working his tail off trying to get back, but I would say he’s probably the first one that comes to mind.”
(WR Isaiah Ford is on the 53-man roster again. Just his skills as a receiver from being around him for six, seven months? What skills does he bring?) – “Isaiah, from the time we started installing this offense, he picked it up the fastest. (He is) Mr. Reliable in terms of being able to play every position. You can count on him doing the right thing, making the right read, being in the right place at the right time. As a quarterback – I think Allen Hurns is very much the same way, but Isaiah has done a great job throughout the year and a guy that we’re bringing up now, but I think that all of us in our room we’re real comfortable with in terms of throwing him the ball because he’s been around and been very consistent throughout the year.”
(What are your Thanksgiving plans? What is your family doing on Thursday?) – “Just that. Hanging out with family, enjoying the day. We usually – me and my brothers used to do the pre weigh-in and the post weigh-in. (laughter) Maybe I’ll do it with my kids, and we’ll just do like, a body composition percentage or something. (laughter) They’ve got the leg-up on me, especially the 30-pounder, so we’ll see. (laughter)”
(What are the logistics of a family of nine?) – “Yeah, I’ve – in the last few years – really come to like the deep frying of the turkey. It’s 45 minutes, frees up the oven for other things, I can kind of sit and feel manly and man the fryer a little bit. (laughter) So that’s probably what I’ll be doing – maybe two birds in there, so an hour and a half, 30 minutes of prep time. I probably have two hours set aside for just sitting by myself unless people want to come by and talk to me, which I don’t mind. (laughter)”
