Ryan Fitzpatrick – October 16, 2019
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Wednesday, October 16, 2019
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick
(What’s your reaction to being named the starter?) – “I’m excited. I told you guys earlier, I just enjoy playing football. I like being out there. It’s a lot more fun for me – whether it’s throughout the week or on Sunday in the game – to be out there and to be playing. Preparation is a lot more fun when you’re the guy. I’ll be a lot happier day today knowing that I’ll be out there and I’ll just try to go out there and be myself.”
(Did you tell your kids yet?) – “Yeah, I told my kids. They’re excited for me. It’s been – their whole life has been the rollercoaster of dad’s career, so they’re excited for me to be out there.”
(Did you kind of anticipate that from the fourth quarter on Sunday?) – “I don’t really – I didn’t have any expectations. Whatever (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores was going to do, I was going to try to do my best job at it and I’m glad he made the decision he did.”
(You obviously know Buffalo. Can you put into words the difficulty of a road team going and playing in that environment?) – “It’s an awesome place to play whether you’re there as a player with the support of the fans or going in there as an opponent in a hostile environment. When you walk in there, there’s not a whole lot of jerseys for your team. It’s all Buffalo jerseys. There will be some 14s but they’re probably Sammy Watkins (jerseys), not Fitzpatrick, and whoever it is now. (laughter) I have a lot of good friends from there – a lot of good memories. One player that I played with there that is in his second stint is Lee Smith. I don’t think anybody else is left. But in terms of that building and those people and the city of Buffalo, I have a lot of great memories.”
(You mentioned there won’t be a lot of Dolphins jerseys but I would imagine there may be one or two Fitzpatrick jerseys in there. What is it like for you when you go into some of those spots where you’ve played in and see…) – “Oh, it’s easy for me to pick out my old neighbors when they wear my jersey. (laughter) It’s either family or old neighbors or something. It is fun. It is fun to go and play in a game like this that is going to be in a great environment. This one is unique in that you have all of these new stadiums that are enormous and it’s almost like the game is secondary to some of the other stuff going on; but in Buffalo, it is all about the game. The fans are so into it – after the tailgating, of course – that as an opponent, you enjoy going in there and getting that feeling, as well.”
(We’ve talked about intangibles at the quarterback position before and I believe at one point in the preseason, you said if it wasn’t for intangibles, you might not be where you are. Among those intangibles, players playing hard for a quarterback or players liking to play for a particular quarterback, where does that rank? And how do you attain that as a quarterback?) – “I don’t think you can force it. I think there’s a naturalness to it. I mean some guys, that’s just what is in them. Maybe it’s the style of play or the way you carry yourself, whatever it is. I think it’s a very important trait to have as a quarterback. I’m not sure it’s one that you can really teach because it’s got to be – you have to be coming from a place that’s organic, that’s real. You can’t fake it. Guys can see that. I think if you’re out there and you’re enjoying playing the game, then that rubs off on other guys.”
(Is that tangible – for everyone to feel and see – in the locker room?) – “I think you’d have to ask them but like I said, I enjoy being out there and I’ve had great teammates over the years that I really had a fun time on the field with.”
(How would you describe your experience here this year? You had to battle for the job, you won the job, then you were on the bench and now you’re back in the lineup.) – “Rollercoaster. (laughter)”
(You’re the right guy for that kind of an assignment, I guess, because that’s been your career, right?) – “Yeah, you just try to – through it all, you just try to stay steady and try to make sure that all of the stuff that’s either going on outside or even inside of the building, it’s not affecting the way that you’re doing your job and the way that you’re approaching your job.”
(For you and QB Josh Rosen, going through that rollercoaster, how challenging is that where you’re starting one week and you never know. You might not be starting again the next week and you have to kind of keep battling for your job.) – “I think one of the most important things in doing that is just the open communication in our relationship. He had even said that he’s cheering for me when I’m in there; and I’m cheering for him. We want to win and we want what’s best for the team. I think that’s an important thing to be open about and to talk about rather than to avoid it and let it be an elephant in the room.”
(The good news is you are playing and you are starting but the bad news is the Buffalo Bills defense limited QB Tom Brady to one touchdown. They’re pretty good. They’re fourth in the NFL in scoring defense. What needs to happen – what do you need to make happen – to make that a good news, good news situation?) – “They are. They’re a great defense. Again, it’s a tough environment like we said. They’re very aggressive. Everybody seems to know their role and what they’re doing, what they’re supposed to do and what they’re asked to do on each snap. It will be a tough challenge for us. Each week I think we’ve tried to really focus on ourselves and getting ourselves better and in-tune with the details and on the same page with communication. It’ll just be another week like that where we’re really – obviously we’re game-planning and preparing for their defense but we’ve got to focus on ourselves and getting ourselves better because we’re still at a point now where we’re still trying to fix ourselves rather than every week going out there and trying to put 100 points on the board.”
(You spoke about your relationship with QB Josh Rosen and your communication with him. How have you helped him kind of handle how the season has gone for him?) – “I think part of it is just being there. He knows that I’m there and he knows that I’ve been through a lot of different things. I wasn’t a first-round high draft pick; but I have been the guy that has been the starter and the ‘franchise guy’ getting paid money and whatever else. So I’ve had the weight of the world on my shoulders at times and I know that as a quarterback, especially as a young guy and a guy that got drafted high, you feel that pressure sometimes. Every Sunday, I have the fate of this whole team on my shoulders and that’s what you do as a quarterback. But if you allow it to overpower you and you allow it to cripple you, it will. So part of it is just trying to play free and trying to really hone in on the details of your job and going out there and executing them. A lot of what I do – I’ll openly answer questions for him but I also think at times, just watching. He’s a lot more talented than I am but just watching certain things about me – maybe things he likes or doesn’t like – and figuring out things he might want to apply to his game or things he’ll try to avoid.”
(How did Head Coach Brian Flores tell you guys?) – “He’s just always been very straight up. He just came and told us.”
(Did you feel the Fitzmagic in the fourth quarter last week and how much more Fitzmagic is in there, do you think?) – “Well, it’s not something that I can just go out there and force and try to hit a home run on every play. Historically, there’s been times in my career where whatever team I’ve been on, we’ve gotten on a little bit of a roll and that momentum is a fun feeling. It’s a fun rhythm to get into. Hopefully we can see a lot more of that and there’s a lot more of that to come.”
(You mentioned the environment of Buffalo and that it’s a fun place to play and a loud place. Does that give you an extra boost to get that momentum going in an environment like that?) – “It’s sometimes tougher because of the communication and those types of things but it’s certainly a game that everybody will be up for. Whether there’s that big flyover or not before the game, the crowd is going to be going nuts and we’re going to be all we have on our sideline and really have to come together as a team and go do it.”
