Six days ago Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera said the organization had time to figure out their plans at quarterback for the 2021 season.
“We're gonna continue to look," Rivera told the media last Wednesday. “We're going through this process, free agency starts next week, the draft is in 50 days, I understand. So we still have time. And we're gonna continue to explore all the options that are out there."
Just 11 hours into the NFL’s legal tampering period at the start of free agency, Rivera and Washington agreed to a one-year, $10 million deal with quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick joins Taylor Heinicke, who signed a two-year extension in February, and Kyle Allen, who was tendered last week, in Washington. But the newly signed veteran is now the favorite to be the Week 1 starter.
What does this mean for 2021? It shows Rivera is more committed to building the team his way with a conservative eye on the future than he is interested in trying to repeat as NFC East champions.
“We’re not desperate. There’s no immediate need to have to, got to, must… what we’re looking to do, we’re looking to build a sustainable winning culture,” Rivera said last week when asked about how he can best balance the team’s short and long-term goals entering free agency.
“We want to put the football team together the right way,” Rivera said. "A lot of good things happened last year. We did something that was a little unexpected, which I acknowledged. But at the same time, just because of that, I really don’t think you throw the plan away and you start reaching and doing things you don’t need to do right now. I think what you do is you continue to put the pieces of the puzzle in place, and hopefully build it the right way.”
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And after he made a small effort to land Matthew Stafford, the best QB to change teams thus far, falling back on acquiring Fitzpatrick fits Rivera’s statements on not reaching for the short-term if it meant trading away draft picks.
And, of course, Fitzpatrick – the shepherd for franchises lost in the footballing wilderness who helps them journey over a metaphorical River Styx between having an answer at quarterback and having none at all – landed in Washington, a place perpetually marooned in the quarterback badlands.
While he has fans in the media and many supporters who love to watch him on NFL RedZone, Fitzpatrick doesn't have a track record that screams consistent, successful NFL starting quarterback play. There’s a reason Fitzpatrick is joining his ninth team. And while he’s about to play his 17th season, he’s only started 10 games or more eight times and only started 16 games three times.
Combine that with the fact Washington has started three or more quarterbacks in each of the last three seasons. The odds are Heinicke and Allen will get their shot to play as Washington searches for consistency on offense.
“Do you want to be able to say this is our franchise quarterback? Well, yeah, you would love to,” Rivera said last week. “We just gotta continue to go through this, study the players, and get the one that we feel can become that player. And we'll see what happens."
Nobody would confuse Fitzpatrick, who turns 39 in November, with the team’s QB of the future or the guy Washington will build an offense around. He made his NFL debut when the team's best offensive weapon, Terry McLaurin, was 10. Fitzpatrick is 17 months older than Alex Smith.
“I get we had success last year,” Rivera told the media last week. “People want to see us continue to do that.”
But for all of his free-agent signings, a team grabbing Fitzpatrick usually indicates they do not expect to be a contender that season. The teams Fitzpatrick has played on have mostly been losers. While wins are a team stat, not a QB one, Fitzpatrick's teams have gone 59-86-1 in games he's started. And he’s never thrown a pass in the playoffs.
Last week Rivera conveyed an air of a reluctance to go all-in on the short-term: “Well, if we try to take one big shot, now you have to start over again, again and again. What we want to do is get to the point where we don’t have to start all over.”
Fitzpatrick’s signing is not Rivera’s one big shot. This isn't a move that will force Washington to start over “again and again," with lasting consequences like 2019's first-round pick or 2018's trade with the Chiefs. But this move does mean Washington will again be looking for a quarterback in 2022.
The signing of Fitzpatrick mirrors Rivera’s football ideology: aggressive conservatism.
Sure, “Riverboat Ron” is willing to go for it on 4th down. Yes, signing a gunslinger like Fitzpatrick carries a higher risk/reward payoff than WallStreetBets. But Rivera was not willing to push his chips to the center of the table, betting on an unproven young quarterback (like Sam Darnold, Marcus Mariota, or Jameis Winston) who could be Washington's guy for the future and the guy who can help them compete right now.
With Washington again facing a 4th down in their search for a quarterback, he signed the aggressive Fitzpatrick. But with an eye on not risking his long-term building project, Rivera went conservative: It's a punt to 2022.
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