A LITTLE BIT OF FITZMAGIC

NFL / Football

Written by Chase Howard

Ryan Fitzpatrick was a complicated man known by many names and for many deeds, after a somewhat illustrious and unorthodox 17-year career, he announced this past week that he's hanging up his cleats for good. The Harvard grad started his NFL career in 2005 after being drafted in the 7th round 250th overall by the then-St Louis Rams. In Fitzpatrick’s career, he was a member of nine different NFL clubs. For all of these teams, Fitzpatrick started at least one game, the most of any player since 1950. In a league where many quarterbacks don't seem to get a second shot, let alone a third, it's interesting to see Fitzpatrick play for nine different franchises.

Source (Background Photo): Mark LoMoglio/AP

A vast majority of these teams were not looking to him as a possible face of the future, but instead as a steady hand to steer the ship; an interim skipper, or a stopgap solution to a common problem. That is all part of the Fitzpatrick charm, you know he’s not going to steal a win by himself, but your ok with it; he is the NFL version of here for a good time, not a long one. While he may not have ever found a special place with one specific fan base, he found a special place in the NFL and in the hearts of its fans. Yet that relationship with fans has not all been positive. Perhaps it is best exemplified by the three most prominent nicknames of Ryan Fitzpatrick. First is Fitzmagic because it's quite amazing what he seems to be able to pull out of his helmet in times of need. The next is Fitztragic because it's also amazing how big a lead he can blow or how bad a fourth-quarter pick he can throw. The last nickname is the Amish Rifle, which he gave himself, as despite being Harvard-educated and named as one of the most intelligent athletes by multiple publications; the Fitzpatrick visual is most reminiscent of a caveman. Last we saw him he was enjoying a Buffalo Bills game and a beer, in the winter, shirtless.

When Fitzpatrick retired the other day it was interesting to see the litany of posts. Frank Gore retired at a very similar time and honestly has a significantly more impressive resume; he’s pretty much a lock for the Hall of Fame. Not to mention Gore possesses one of the greatest nicknames of all time, The Inconvenient Truth. Yet most NFL outlets were focused on Fitzpatrick's retirement, rather than the man who is arguably one of the best running backs to ever do it, in contrast to a career journeyman QB who was nearly Mr. Irrelevant in his draft. On that note, let's take a quick moment here to appreciate the excellence that is Frank Gore. During a 15-year career spent primarily with the San Francisco 49ers where he holds multiple franchise records, followed by short stints in Indianapolis, Miami, Buffalo, and New York. Gore amassed nine, thousand-yard seasons and 81 touchdowns in his 16-year carer. Frank the Tank played the most games of any running back in NFL history (241), has the third-most regular-season rushing yards (16,000), and the most consecutive seasons with 1200 scrimmage yards all-time (12).

Ok back to Fitzpatrick. Overall in his career, the Amish Rifle passed for 34,990 yards and 223 touchdowns in 166 career games. He recorded the most passing yards in NFL history by a player who never played in a playoff game, sitting 32nd in league history. Despite the somewhat lackluster totals, Fitzpatrick does have a bevy of interesting records. He has the most consecutive regular-season games with at least two touchdown passes in one stadium with nine. The most touchdowns of any Ivy League graduate with 223. The first quarterback to start a game against one opponent with 6 different teams and the first quarterback to win against the same opponent with 6 different teams, sorry to the Jacksonville Jaguars. He's also one of only three players to throw four 400-yard games in the same season alongside Dan Marino and Peyton Manning, not exactly two names you'd expect to find alongside a player sometimes referred to as Fitztragic.

Fitzpatrick is one of only six QBs in NFL history with 34,000+ passing yards and 2,600+ rushing yards in their career. To put Fitzpatrick’s rushing abilities in context for a second. The man has two fewer rushing TDs (21) than Russell Wilson in their careers despite starting 11 fewer games than him. At 5.6 yards per carry-on third down, Fitzpatrick has been effective in his career as a runner with 89 first downs on such plays, 17 more than Wilson.

Fitzmagic also has a bevy of strange statistics please enjoy a quick list of my favourites.

1. Reportedly scored a 48/50 on the Wonderlic giving him the third-highest score of all time

2. He has the New York Jets single-season touchdown record with 31

3. Fitzpatrick has a 100% catch rate in his career. Three receptions for -3 yards All were batted at the line and using his superhero-like reflexes he snagged the ball out of thin air.

4. Started the 2018 season with one of the best all-time three-game stretches. Going 2-1 and winning back to back NFC offensive players of the week awards, one of only six people to do so

5. Despite all this he has never appeared in a playoff game his closest moment was in 2015, the Jets went 10-6 and were in a “win-and-get-in” situation. Unfortunately, the team lost 22-17 in Buffalo. In 2020, Miami went 10-6 but was shut out in an ultra-competitive AFC despite the NFC sporting two teams with worse records in Chicago (8-8) and division-winning Washington (7-9).

Especially with only two winning seasons in his career, I think it's safe to say they are not exactly Hall of Fame numbers, however, the Ryan Fitzpatrick cycle has earned a special place in NFL lore.

At the end of the day as I said above he is not likely to make the Hall of Fame but he has earned himself a special place in NFL history. In scenarios like this, analysts like me bring up the so-called hall of very good, often used to refer to players who were indeed excellent but for one reason or another are likely to fall short of the Hall of Fame. In all honesty, I'm not even sure if Fitzpatrick should be in the hall of very good. Sure there were some impressive highs but there were some depressing lows, what I am sure about is Ryan Fitzpatrick most definitely is in the hall of very fun and I will surely miss watching him.