Ryan Fitzpatrick’s long pursuit of the NFL Air Player of the Week award is finally over. Fitzpatrick was named the NFL’s winner of the weekly recognition for his performance in Week 17 against the New England Patriots — the first time he’s won this season despite being nominated on several other occasions. Most recently, Fitzpatrick was nominated in Week 16 and had the most dominant stat sheet of the three finalists, but the award was given to rookie quarterback Daniel Jones for his performance against the Washington Redskins again.
There was no one left to swipe away to honors of Fitzpatrick’s stellar showing against the New England Patriots, however — and Fitzpatrick has secured the honor.
Congratulations to @MiamiDolphins QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and @Titans RB @KingHenry_2 for being named @FedEx #AirAndGround Players of Week 17! 👏 pic.twitter.com/6kWh67Q0q0
— NFL (@NFL) January 2, 2020
It has been a good week overall for Ryan Fitzpatrick — the Dolphins upset New England courtesy of Fitzpatrick’s play and in the following days saw Miami bring in his former offensive coordinator, Chan Gailey, to serve in the same role for Miami going forward. With Fitzpatrick under contract for 2020, the writing appears to be on the wall that Fitzpatrick is the team’s short-term answer at the quarterback position.
And given how he played throughout the final 10 games of the 2019 season, who can blame the Dolphins? Fitzpatrick was terrific. He quarterbacked Miami to 5 wins over the final 9 games and passed for 2,622 yards throughout that same timeframe — an average of 291.3 yards per game — to go along with a 15:6 touchdown/interception ratio.
Extrapolating Fitzpatrick’s stats over a full 16 game season? 4,661 passing yards, 27 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. That level of play is unquestionably the best quarterback production the Dolphins have seen since Dan Marino.
The NFL’s Air Player of the Week for Week 17 and Miami’s short-term franchise quarterback, no backed by his old offensive coordinator. Not a bad week at all for “Fitzmagic”.
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