Ryan Fitzpatrick makes the Buccaneers look silly after departure
By Rob Leeds
Who ever would’ve thought that a team like the Buccaneers would be so desperate for a replacement for Ryan Fitzpatrick?
After reports surfaced announcing the end of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s career in the NFL, it is safe to say that he will go down in history as one of the most unique quarterbacks to ever play the game. The Buccaneers saw part of the reason why first-hand.
It would be unfair to say classify Fitzpatrick as a backup, although he has spent most of his recent years in that role rather successfully with the Dolphins and Bucs.
However, if you did call Fitz a backup, he probably sits alone amongst the bunch as the best to ever do it.
Fitzpatrick was always a fringe starer. A guy that could come in and give you a ridiculous stat line and then follow that up in the next game with something terrible. This high and low cycle make Fitzpatrick ridiculously-fun as a backup, but a bit of a concern as a starer.
Still, Fitzpatrick was a great spot-starter for the Bucs during his time in Tampa, and it seems like his impact in that role was so great that the team is willing to hurt itself to find the next Fitzpatrick.
The Bucs had no choice but to move on from Fitzpatrick when Winston was feeling the heat, and while Gabbert has been good in the backup role, he is no Fitzmagic.
As shocking as it may be, Blaine Gabbert is still collecting checks from the Buccaneers. The Tampa coaching staff and front office appear to have it in mind that Gabbert is one of the best QB2s in the NFL right now, and that line of thinking is hilariously-wrong and hurting the team.
Ryan Fitzpatrick is the standard for that line of thinking, and Gabbert is nothing close to Fitzpatrick as a player or a leader, yet the Bucs are using Gabbert as a team should use Fitzpatrick with an apparent plan in place for Gabbert to take over as the starter down the line.
The Bucs can make excuses all they want and try to pretend that they have gold in the backup quarterback position, but that just isn’t the case. Tampa had a golden QB2, but Ryan Fitzpatrick retired today.
They can keep throwing money at Blaine Gabbert all they want. They aren’t going to find a QB2 as good as Fitzpatrick for a long time.
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