No NFL quarterback ever wants to be benched, but let’s be real: They often know when a benching is coming. It’s relatively uncommon to see an adequately performing starting QB end up on the bench out of nowhere.
But that’s exactly what happened to Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Despite leading the Dolphins to a 3-3 start to the season on 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions, Fitzpatrick was demoted to the backup role in favor of rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
While Fitzpatrick’s turnover issues were clearly a problem, he didn’t see that benching coming at all and had the Dolphins in contention for the AFC East. He spoke to reporters on Wednesday about the shock of getting benched.
Fitzpatrick has been hurting in light of the demotion — that’s for sure.
Here's the video of Ryan Fitzpatrick zoom conference.
He also added: "I've been benched for all kinds of different ways but this was kind of the first place other than Buffalo that I've been fully committed and invested. I felt like it was my team." pic.twitter.com/tFOZjmCsCu
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 21, 2020
He added that his day had basically consisted of Zoom meetings with head coach Brian Flores, who “fired” him, and then sitting in a quarterback room with Tua, who took his job.
Ryan Fitzpatrick: "I basically got fired yesterday and my day today consisted of zoom meetings with the guy who fired me and sitting in a room with the guy who replaced me for four hours."
— Armando Salguero (@ArmandoSalguero) October 21, 2020
Awkward…
Obviously, it was inevitable that Tua was going to take over as the starter at some point. Miami didn’t use the No. 5 pick on a quarterback to be a backup for a 37-year-old journeyman with an incredible beard. So, Fitzpatrick knew this day was coming — he just didn’t think it would happen so soon.
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