Less than 72 hours after Ryan Fitzpatrick tore at least one ligament in his left thumb while scrambling from the pocket, New York Jets coach Todd Bowles named him as the starting quarterback for Sunday’s game against Jacksonville.
There were two reasons: Fitzpatrick throws a football with his right hand, and he is pretty darn resilient. Plus, he has staying power: a seventh-round draft pick from Harvard, Fitzpatrick has played for six NFL teams in his 11-year pro career, making four stops in his last four seasons.
“There has to be some mental toughness to last this long in this league,” Brandon Marshall, the Jets’ veteran wide receiver, said of Fitzpatrick after practice Wednesday.
Because the NFL is a quarterback-driven enterprise, its quarterbacks are highly coveted and highly paid – and, as a result, heavily protected by the rulebook, even if they are big enough to lay a good lick or fast enough to avoid contact. Most times, though, quarterbacks won’t win a collision. Fitzpatrick is a perfect example.
Fitzpatrick, 33, is 6ft 2in and 221lbs, certainly no shrimp compared to the man on the street, but he has been hurt twice in his last eight games. Last season ended two games early for him when he broke his left leg while playing for the Houston Texans, also on a quarterback scramble. But he is a commodity, so the Jets traded for him in March.
He also was promoted in Cincinnati, Buffalo and Tennessee when the starting quarterback for each of those teams got hurt. So you’d think Fitzpatrick has learned a little something about the perils of his position over 11 years. And he is about as intelligent as quarterbacks get. But telling him to steer clear of collisions is more like a helpful hint.
“You’d like to see him slide,” Bowles said. “I don’t mind him escaping the pocket, as long as he knows when to get down.”
The NFL rulebook has a proviso to protect quarterbacks: rule 7, section 2, article 1 (d) (2), which says a play is over when any ball carrier – not just a quarterback – declares himself down “by sliding feet-first on the ground. When a runner slides feet first, the ball is dead the instant he touches the ground with anything other than his hands or his feet.”
The NFL’s “slide rule” has been around for 30 years, and it is intended to prevent bloodthirsty defensive players from teeing off on quarterbacks who wander out of the pocket. Six years ago, when he was coaching the Jets, Rex Ryan invited New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi to teach Mark Sanchez how to slide properly.
Though he is one of the NFL’s most mobile quarterbacks, with more than 2,100 yards rushing in three and a half seasons, Seattle’s Russell Wilson has not missed a game because he knows when to slide. He avoided an injury just two weeks ago, when he deftly slid to the turf after picking up a first down on what appeared to be a designed quarterback keeper against San Francisco.
But then there are journeymen quarterbacks like Fitzpatrick – and his backup, Geno Smith, who took over when Fitzpatrick was injured Sunday in a loss to Oakland. These quarterbacks have less job security than, say, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, so they have to take risks. Smith proceeded to get hurt when he was belted by Raiders defensive back David Amerson while trying to stretch out a long run instead of stepping to the sideline. Smith’s left shoulder was bruised.
Asked Wednesday if he’d learned anything from the play, Smith replied: “Definitely. I definitely needed to slide. I should have gotten out of bounds, and in the future, I will.”
A minute later, Smith said sliding was the “smart thing to do,” adding: “You want to protect yourself and protect the team.”
In his first action of the season – Smith lost his job in August when then-teammate IK Enempali broke his jaw with a sucker punch in a locker-room argument – Smith passed for 265 yards and two touchdowns Sunday after replacing Fitzpatrick. Smith did not hide the fact that he was disappointed that Bowles had decided to go with Fitzpatrick.
“I understand what’s going on,” Smith said, “but, at the same time, I want to play.”
But so does Fitzpatrick. He plans to wear a “special glove” on his left hand Sunday. But when he was asked if he would be more likely to slide against the Jaguars and future opponents when forced from the pocket, Fitzpatrick smiled and said: “We’ll see.”
He then said: “I obviously have to be smart. There’s times where I’ve gotten into a little bit of trouble, this kind of being a fluke deal, but I could have slid three yards before and it wouldn’t have been an issue. I’ve got to try to be a little bit smarter, probably.”
It is a good time to act that way. After winning four of their first five games under Bowles, the Jets have lost two in a row. Catching the AFC East-leading New England Patriots, who are 7-0, already looks like a lost cause, but the Jets are still in contention for a wildcard playoff berth. The Jets can fatten their record in November, which includes games against the Jaguars (2-5), Buffalo (3-4), Houston (3-5) and Miami (3-4).
Fitzpatrick, bad thumb and all, is still their best bet. Smith was sacked three times against Oakland, twice when he had time to throw the ball away. The third-stringer is the rookie Bryce Petty, a fourth-round draft pick from Baylor who was inactive for the last three games. Bowles said he’d shop around for another quarterback, but the Jets did not sign anyone.
Fitzpatrick said he was able to participate fully in practice, even taking direct snaps. He could grip the ball with his left hand. He said he’d chatted with Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer, a former teammate in Cincinnati, who also played despite an injured left thumb. Fitzpatrick even joked that his thumb injury got him out of changing diapers this week at home.
“I’m extremely confident,” Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t want to put the team in a position where I’m going to go out and hurt the team and turn the ball over, or try to be a hero because something is compromised. I want to go out there and help the team. If I can do that without putting me or the team in a compromising position, then I will, and I think I’m going to be able to do that.”
