Ryan Fitzpatrick – September 16, 2020
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Wednesday, September 16, 2020
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick
(How important is it for you to just get back out there and have another start under your belt after Sunday’s performance?) – “The best medicine for a performance like that is getting back on the practice field and getting back out there. Today was a great day for us, just a new opponent, new week, starting fresh, just getting into the preparation. Obviously you don’t want to have weeks like I had last week. That can’t happen if we’re going to win football games. Put everything that I have into this week and move on. For me and the rollercoaster I’ve been on, I have an easy way of putting things like that behind me and moving on.”
(How important it is having WR DeVante Parker on the field, not only because of the talent he brings but I’m assuming his presence also opens things up for other receivers on the roster?) – “We always want to have our best players out there and he’s definitely one of them for us. It’s definitely better with our best guys on the field and just hope that he’s out there. Whoever it is that’s out there, nobody feels sorry for us. Nobody on our squad is going to play any softer. We’re all going to give it all we have to try to win the game. We’ll have a plan to go out there and do just that.”
(I asked you this about this on Sunday, but now that you’ve had a chance to digest and you’ve seen some film and everything, the incorporation of RB Myles Gaskin, just knowing the weapons you guys have with RB Jordan Howard and RB Matt Breida, how does that third kind of element with what he does in terms of breaking tackles and being elusive bring to the table, and being able to see him do that one the field on Sunday?) – “It was fun. Myles has had a great offseason and training camp. It was good to see him go out there and put it together in a game and do some good things for us. I think we have a lot of talent back there in the backfield, so those touches will get spread around. It’s a good problem for us to have and (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) will do his best to figure out how to do it. It’s a good problem to have that many talented guys in the backfield for us.”
(When you went back and watched the tape, were there some throws where maybe your progression didn’t take you to the open guy? Do you have to beat on yourself a little bit to not be reliant on WR DeVante Parker, reliant on TE Mike Gesicki, that your third guy in your progression might be your best option?) – “Every week is different. New England is such a big man team, so a lot of times it’s who is going to win the one-on-one matchup really. When you play against a zone defense, sometimes the progression comes in a little bit more in that regard. If you’re reading top down or left to right. Some of it was me not making the right throw or picking the right match up. Just stuff that I need to get better at. For me, knowing that there are things that I need to improve, I think that I can get those done and I think we’ll be in a better spot this week.”
(You’ve talked about bouncing back and moving on. You’ve obviously got a lot of experience at those things. How has your ability to do that evolved over your career and what do you see as your secret? We’ve all heard all of the clichés, but what do you tap into?) – “It’s hard though. It’s one of those things where you walk into the locker room after a game when you know you didn’t do your best as a quarterback and let the team down, that’s hard. It’s hard to face those guys. The best thing that I’ve learned is just to pour everything that I have into the next week of preparation, into the next game. There is a fine line there, there is a balance too because I can’t sit here and put so much pressure on myself to go out there and be perfect. At the same time, I’ve got to move on from last week, I’ve got to do a great job of getting everybody where they are supposed to be, throwing the ball to the right spot and doing the best we can on offense to generate some more confidence and some more rhythm, and that falls on me. A lot of it for me is just the week of preparation and how we’re doing practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the discussions, the communications, the talk, making sure that everybody is into it and everybody knows that this is a new week. Those are the type of things you really try to focus on after a bad week.”
(How expansive or advanced did you feel like you were able to be with the offense given it was Week 1? Were you able to do as much of the playbook as you wanted to?) – “Yeah. The great thing with Chan and the way that this system works is it’s really you try to figure out each week the best way to attack a defense. He’s very multiple in what he can do. Sometimes it will evolve week to week, sometimes it will look the same. I think we felt very comfortable going into the game with the plan that we had. I think guys did a good job of understanding what we were trying to get done. We just have to do a better job of going out there and executing it. So far so good this week. A great day at practice today. It wasn’t perfect but in terms of the intensity and the way that we practice and starting to understand and digest how we are going to attack the Bills. Each week is definitely different and one of Chan’s strengths is being able to change it up from team to team and make it easy on our guys mentally.”
(You talked about the challenges of going against a man and zone defense, and how you want to best approach each week’s opponent. This Buffalo Bills defense couple of guys that really get ball production in S Micah Hyde, and S Jordan Poyer, and CB Tre’Davious White, How’s your approach going against those guys in more of a zone-based defense?) – “Really this defense is just very multiple in what they do. They can do a lot of different things. You look at some of that stuff. Micah Hyde is definitely a ball hawk. If you put it anywhere close to him, he’s going to catch it. Tre’Davious White, obviously I have a little bit of experience playing against him and he does a great job and was rewarded for that. He’s a tough guy, a tough match up; but at the same time, there are certain things. When we’re going, we’ve got to play at our strengths too. We’ve got to rely on our guys to go out there and make plays and put them in good position. Each week is a different challenge. They have a very good, fast, experienced defense and everybody understanding what they are trying to get done. It’s funny, every week this is a lot different looking defense then New England’s was; but in terms of productivity, these guys are really tough to play against as well. It will be a good challenge for us.”
(Yesterday a couple of coaches talked about QB Tua Tagovailoa and the learning experience that Sunday was for a rookie, his first time on the sidelines. Your primary goal has to be to win the ballgame, I understand that. But looking back, what can you share in terms of how much you think Tua may have learned from watching you on Sunday and maybe talking to you in film study over the past day or two?) – “I probably talked more on the bench than I normally would inbetween series. Just talking with him, talking through what I was seeing, what they were doing, and it’s good for me. It’s good for me to walk through those things, but I especially in talking through some of those things, want him to kind of understand what I’m seeing and to be able to ask questions even if it is in a game-like setting. I thought we had a good back and forward, a good rapport on the sideline. He asked some really good questions. It seemed like he saw the game pretty decent from the sidelines in terms of the stuff that we were talking about and the questions he was asking. It was good. It was a good start just to build on that communication now, just being another set of eyes for me to be able to trust. I thought he did a nice job.”
(Does that go both ways with QB Tua Tagovailoa? Does Tua tell you something that he saw that maybe you didn’t see? Also, it seemed like after QB Cam Newton scored the first touchdown, you were putting on your helmet and he tapped you on your helmet, maybe you said a joke there or something to make him laugh?) –“I don’t really remember that moment; but there are certain things that maybe I’ll ask him to watch for during the game that I can get some feedback on. At the same time, you know your role a little bit too in terms of what you can say and can’t say sometimes. There is definitely some stuff – as quarterbacks, you just see the game differently sometimes. There is some stuff I’ll tell him to keep an eye on, whether it’s safety depth or corners and how we’re doing out there, or something that happened in two minute. He’ll be a good asset.”
