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The New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins will square off this Sunday in a matchup that doesn’t just feature familiar rivals in the AFC East as teams — but also features a long-running rivalry between Bill Belichick and an opposing player. The Miami Dolphins’ starting quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, has faced Bill Belichick 13 times throughout the course of his career as a starting quarterback. That massive number hasn’t led to very many wins (3), but Fitzpatrick bested the Patriots in the most recent showdown last December.
Given that Belichick has seen the evolution of Ryan Fitzpatrick up close and personal over the past decade and a half, he’s probably got a strong gauge on just how much Fitzpatrick has changed as a player through the years. On Tuesday, Belichick was asked exactly that regarding Fitzpatrick — and here’s what the legendary Patriots coach had to say about the Dolphins’ starting quarterback.
“Well, Ryan’s a, you know, smart player very experienced player and a very instinctive player. He does things on the field that are done through instinct and experience and confidence. Every situation is a little bit different. You have to be careful on kind of overplaying him because he’ll do things that, he’ll take advantage of those situations where overplay him in one way or another,” said Belichick.
“He’s certainly has a great grasp of coach Gailey’s system, for the amount of time that they’ve worked together. I’m sure that he can go in and out of things that they need to do to take advantage of defensive weaknesses and opportunities and things like that. He’s, a tough competitor…we have a lot of respect for what he can do and how well he’s done it and, and can still do it. He’s a little unpredictable, so that just makes it a little more difficult to defend because of its versatility and his ability with confidence attack weaknesses that the defense presents.”
If Fitzpatrick was able to give the Patriots all they could handle and more at the end of 2019, the Dolphins can certainly take optimism that he can be just as effective in 2020 under the watch of Chan Gailey. If Fitzpatrick can build upon his last performance, he’ll prove Belichick right. And, most importantly, the Dolphins might steal a Week 1 win.