Everyone knew that a quarterback change was going to come sooner or later for the Miami Dolphins, including veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. None of us knew when the time would come for a swap behind center — but the writing was always on the wall. This is what Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins both signed up for when Fitzpatrick signed with the team in 2019 and the Dolphins subsequently drafted QB Tua Tagovailoa with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
And yet now that the decision has come, it seems to have caught everyone by surprise. Not the actual decision, but rather the timing of it all — because while the glass ceiling of a Fitzpatrick-led offense may have always lingered in the background, Fitzpatrick was continuing to play inspired football. His 19 starts for the Dolphins were some of the most impressive play of his career — a reckless gunslinger and wily veteran who played with nothing to lose.
And while Ryan Tannehill was the Dolphins quarterback who made it okay for Dolphins fans to expect more than “okay” from their quarterback again, it was Ryan Fitzpatrick who made watching the Dolphins’ offense fun again. Miami fans owe him deeply for that.
Miami has seen the team go on stretches of success before. Adam Gase’s Dolphins were 12-4 in a 16 game stretch between the final 11 games of 2016 and the first five games of 2017. But those Dolphins were a clumsy, lucky bunch that generally stunk on offense. The Dolphins’ 9-2 stretch to close 2016 featured bad defensive play and the fortunes of three 200+ yard rushing performances from RB Jay Ajayi. Miami didn’t pass for 300 yards once over that 16 game stretch and logged just seven 300 yard passing performances over Gase’s 48 games as the team’s head coach. And the quarterbacks? Oh, the quarterbacks.
Tannehill. Cutler. Osweiler. It was brutal to watch. And this coming after former coach Joe Philbin persistently tried to make Ryan Tannehill into something he wasn’t, which caused a divide in the fanbase as to who and what Tannehill was.
And then, with the threat of one of the most miserable seasons in franchise history looming on the horizon, in strolls in Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2019. And after a brief interruption from Josh Rosen, Fitzpatrick went about commandeering the Dolphins offense and showing more guts than any Dolphins quarterback this side of Dan Marino. He was fearless. He was fun. And he clicked with the scrappy 2019 Dolphins before carrying that over into several inspired performances in 2020 with the team.
Fitzpatrick has passed for 300+ passing yards in 6 of his last 11 starts (one less than Miami enjoyed in 48 games under Gase) for the Dolphins and made passing the ball fun again in South Florida. Left handed shovels, no look passes and frantic head-first dives for the first down marker will be the lasting impression Fitzpatrick leaves on this organization as they brace for the next phase of their rebuild: Tua time.
And all of that, his selfless play, his passion for the game, his ability to energize his teammates and the successes he brought to a team that some considered the worst in the history of football (he’s 8-11 as the starter in Miami and 8-8 in his last 16 starts) are what make it so gut wrenching to hear Fitzpatrick come clean about how this decision hit him square between the eyes.
“I felt like it was my team and that’s why my heart was so heavy yesterday. My heart just hurt all day. It was heartbreaking for me,” said Fitzpatrick during his press availability on Wednesday, his first time speaking to the media since the decision was made to make the change.
As it turns out, Fitzpatrick did have something to lose despite never playing like it. And on Tuesday, it was indeed lost. So in between the celebrations for Tagovailoa’s insertion into the lineup, say a ‘thank you’ to Ryan Fitzpatrick: for it was he who set the tone for the Dolphins’ rebuild and helped make passing fun again for the Dolphins.