The quarterback competition in Davie is currently just starting — despite the team’s presence on the practice field for the past several weeks, we’re still in the opening round. But one thing that you can be rest assured? Veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is going to cut it loose. Fitzpatrick will play for his 9th career team the first time he suits up for the Miami Dolphins, there isn’t much he hasn’t seen at this point in his NFL career.
And at the ripe age of 36 years old, Fitzpatrick is running out of time to play. In short, this old gunslinger has nothing to lose. Signed to be the Dolphins’ short-term answer until Josh Rosen came into the picture, Fitzpatrick has always played a loose, aggressive brand of football. Pushing the ball down the field, taking shots — he’s the anti-Ryan Tannehill.
That, in itself, makes him an exciting potential solution to the Dolphins offense. Of course there’s nothing Miami would like to see more than for young Josh Rosen to wrap his head around the playbook, wrestle the job from Fitzpatrick and be the franchise quarterback this team has been missing for so long.
But Fitzpatrick’s home run hitting style will raise eyebrows all through mini-camp and into training camp. The savvy vet loves to swing for the fences and he’s still got a pretty good arm to do it. The positive reviews out of Davie for Fitzpatrick’s play aren’t going to go away — and that’s not a bad thing.
The focus will then shift to Josh Rosen from there — how much is he able to elevate his own play once the team gets into training camp? We’ll know in another month and a half.
