New York Jets: Ryan Fitzpatrick deal is a bad model to follow
By Luke Sims
The New York Jets finally signed free agent quarterback and 2015 Cinderella Man Ryan Fitzpatrick this week after months of courting the journeyman player.
Before 2015 it was perfectly acceptable for almost any writer to call out Ryan Fitzpatrick as a mediocre quarterback. The journeyman signal caller certainly had some okay seasons and was much better than many other options to compete for a starting gig or push a young, lackluster option like Geno Smith.
Then Smith was forced to miss most of the season and Fitzpatrick put together a miracle season.
After spending ten seasons bouncing around the NFL without a winning record, Fitzpatrick put together a ten-win season at age 33. He posted career highs in yards (3905) and touchdowns (31), and had his second best overall QB rating (88) ever. It was a resurgent season that had many rooting for him and, in turn, the New York Jets.
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The bearded Fitzpatrick worked his way into the American psyche, almost becoming a folk hero. His brand as a journeyman just finding his feet in the NFL’s largest media market, the return to prominence of a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since 2010 (even if they missed the playoffs in 2015), and the rise of head coach Todd Bowles made the Jets watchable to many people outside of New York for the first time in years.
The Jets, eager to capitalize on the newfound respect and nationwide appeal, played into the Fitzpatrick hype, leaning on the narrative.
It put the team in a near-impossible situation.
Little did the New York Jets realize, by putting their aged quarterback on a pedestal and playing into his brand they were effectively hamstringing themselves in the buildup to the coming season.
While other teams were seducing young, promising quarterbacks like Brock Osweiler, the Jets were entrenched in negotiations with Fitzpatrick, a quarterback that no team would tolerate a “holdout” this long from before 2015 season. No other team, even the QB-starved Denver Broncos, was willing to wait it out for Fitzpatrick. The Jets, who had built him up and committed to getting him signed, were the only constant in the Ryan Fitzpatrick “sweepstakes.”
And negotiations crumbled. Again and again and again.
Seven months after the Jets stopped playing football, Fitzpatrick still wasn’t signed and the Jets were slowly struggling with their new folk hero-less reality, a bleak reality centered around Geno Smith. Even stud wide receiver Brandon Marshall, himself no stranger to controversy, told actor Michael Rapaport in July that he was “scared” by the situation and Fitzpatrick’s silence in the negotiations.
That fear, reflective in many other players, had slowly built up over the year for Marshall. He had been optimistic in March and, later in April, reconciling with his quarterback’s absence, Marshall began to get frustrated, demanding that Fitzpatrick “better be back.”
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Ryan Fitzpatrick, surprising folk hero of the nation’s largest metropolis, had officially become a distraction.
The situation looked messy from the outside. It was clear that the resurgence of the 33 year old QB had knocked the entire team off-balance. While the rest of the NFL scratched their heads, the Jets struggled with growing frustration.
It came to a head this week and a one-year deal worth $12 million was finally struck. “Our long, national nightmare is over,” says Ian Rapoport, in announcing the deal. After all of the stalemate drama, the Jets were able to re-sign a player that many franchises wouldn’t have been willing to pay big, a player who until last season was no big deal to anybody, even the Jets.
NFL.com’s Kevin Patra writes, “Fitzpatrick returning to the Jets just made too much sense for both sides.” So, why all the drama? Why all of the trepidation? Why the distraction?
In short, this is simply a deal that got out of hand and should not be followed by anyone else. This is a deal that, while it resulted in millions for a folk hero quarterback, does not offer a model to followed.
The Ryan Fitzpatrick-New York Jets revealed that the Jets are bit of a mess. There’s no reason for a $12 million hiccup to hold a team hostage for almost the entire offseason. Other players may see an opportunity to get a few extra coins to rub together out of the franchise, but this should be a learning moment for the Jets front office. This should be a chance for the Jets to reevaluate their approaches to personnel management and, hopefully, ensure they don’t get caught up in a mediocre brand in the same way again.
Similarly, mediocre players who have one big season simply shouldn’t follow Fitzpatrick’s approach to these negotiations. They shouldn’t freeze out a team that desperately needs to fill their position. They shouldn’t hold out for more money, artificially inflating their own value until they’re forced into a mediocre deal that becomes a negative distraction for a team that, ultimately, they want to play for.
In the end, those two lessons could be critical for players and for the New York Jets organization. This standoff could result in a stronger Jets franchise in coming years as its current leadership learns. Similarly, deals – even for quarterbacks – could become easier to negotiate, especially for non-premiere players.
Madness: It was time to end the Fitzpatrick standoff
In the end, it’s the closing chapter to one of the most intriguing offseason NFL storylines but it doesn’t feel satisfactory to this writer. It doesn’t feel like anyone came away winners, just not as worse off as they could have been.