Ryan Fitzpatrick endorses Ryan Fitzpatrick for Jets' QB job

Fitzpatrick has a lot of confidence in himself, which is expected, but should the Jets share that confidence?

By Jared Dubin

Nov 24, 2015 at 8:40 pm ET • 3 min read

The New York Jets are stumbling. They're in a rut. They're in a slump. They're on a losing streak. They have not played well of late. After starting the season 4-1, the Jets have since gone 1-4 over their last five games, with the lone win coming over the Jaguars.

The offense, which averaged 25.8 points per game over the first five weeks, has since averaged only 21 points. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who completed 62.57 percent of his passes for 6.88 yards per attempt and had an 83.4 passer rating through five games, has regressed badly. In the last five games (of which he played four full games and the first drive of another), Fitz's numbers are down to 53.64, 6.77, and 79.4, respectively. He has completed less than half of his passes and been picked off twice in two straight games.

Still, Fitzpatrick is convinced he is the answer at quarterback. "I'm the right man for the job," he said on Monday, via the Jets' official web site. "I think, fortunately and unfortunately, I've got a lot of experience in playing for teams that have been in this situation where we lost a few games and we've got to stay the course, we've got to right the ship, and we've got to do all of that stuff.

"I think at this point in my career I've learned a ton, and all of the different situations that I've been in, I have no problem shouldering any blame that gets thrown my way and all the blame I deserve and don't deserve."

First of all, did anyone expect Fitzpatrick to not say that he is the right man for the job? Has anyone in NFL history ever just been like, "I'm not the right man for the job. The other guy is?" Definitely not, right?

Second of all, Fitzpatrick is right. He has been in this situation a lot. He's been involved in 21 different stretches where his team has lost at least four games in a five-game span throughout his career as a starter.

(Note: A five-game losing streak could count as three different instances of losing at least four out of five. If you look at the five-game losing streak as going like this: WLLLL, LLLLL (streak), LLLLW (end of streak). So when Fitzpatrick's Bills lost eight of their last nine games in 2011, he was involved in seven instances of at least four losses in five games.)

I'm just going out on a limb here, but maybe, just maybe, if teams quarterbacked by Ryan Fitzpatrick keep going on these streaks where they lose a lot of games and don't win many, part of the reason is that they're quarterbacked by Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Considering the Rams, Bengals, Bills, Titans and Texans have all at one time or another concluded he was not the answer at quarterback, and that the Rams, Bengals, Bills, Titans, and Texans have not exactly been bastions of great quarterback play, it's more likely than not that Fitzpatrick will not be the answer at quarterback for the Jets, either. But he'll probably at least get a chance to keep trying to prove that he is, because coaches love veteran passers that make them feel safe, even if they're not safe players.

Fitzpatrick is often touted as a smart player that doesn't make mistakes, mostly because he went to Harvard and Harvard is a school for smart people. But it's not true. Fitzpatrick makes lots of mistakes. Of the 53 quarterbacks to throw at least 1,000 passes since Fitzpatrick first played a game back in 2005, he has the eighth-highest interception percentage, per Pro-Football-Reference. He's more interception prone than Jay Cutler, Tarvaris Jackson, Josh Freeman, Christian Ponder and Joey Harrington. That does not sound like a smart, mistake-free QB to me.

The Jets stuck with Fitzpatrick through the early part of the season because they were winning. They are no longer winning. Fitzpatrick is 33 years old and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Jets have only the rest of this season and next year to figure out whether they want to hang on to backup Geno Smith, whom they drafted in the second round two years ago. It would probably be smarter to see what they have there.