Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick signed with the Washington Football Team because he believes the organization is headed in the right direction under head coach Ron Rivera and he will be on the field to see them get there.
In an interview Thursday on The Team 980’s "The Kevin Sheehan Show," Fitzpatrick explained the reasons he decided to join Washington on a one-year deal as a free agent and added what he hopes to achieve on the field.
“I picked Washington a) because I want to be out there on the field and I want to play,” Fitzpatrick told Kevin Sheehan.
“And b) you made the playoffs last year at 7-9, but made the playoffs. I think Coach Rivera’s got it going in the right direction. I think there’s a young energy about this team and I haven’t even met a lot of the guys, just from watching last year I think things are headed in the right direction. And I just felt like I would love to be a part of that organization.”
Listen to Kevin Sheehan’s full interview with Ryan Fitzpatrick starting at 32:10 here:
And on the field, Fitzpatrick told Sheehan he wants to make the young WFT better.
"I'm trying to come in and do what I’ve done for the majority of my career, which is I’m gonna try and elevate the game of the guys around me and make those guys believe in themselves and make them play better,” he said.
But what does Fitzpatrick need around him to be successful?
“To put it very simply, I think the thing that helps me be successful is I need a play-caller that believes in me,” he told Sheehan. "I think that's a big thing and that goes a long way for me when I'm out there. As a quarterback, you can feel and you can sense as the play calls are coming in why they’re being called. And the last four years I’ve had that. I’ve had play-callers that really believe in me and allow me to go out there and kinda do my thing.
“And so that’s the biggest thing for me in terms of my success is just being on the same page as the play-caller and having them have full confidence and belief that I’m gonna get the job done."
Fitzpatrick said his reputation for being a passer willing to take risks with a ‘gunslinger’ mentality comes from his desire to win.
“When you’re playing quarterback and you’re losing a football game, whether it’s down one or two, or a couple scores in the fourth quarter at the end, there are certain quarterbacks [for whom] the most important thing is making sure that their quarterback rating stays up and that their completion percentage is still good. And for me, I wanna try to win the game,” Fitzpatrick told The Team 980.
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“If it does involve taking a few more risks to try to win the game, then I’ve got no problem doing that. At the end of the day, when I go to sleep at night, I have to think about my performance and did I give the team the best chance to win? And that’s a big part of it for me,” he said.
Fitzpatrick added there is “a time and a place” for taking calculated risks as a quarterback.
The veteran quarterback joins a Washington team with Taylor Heinicke and Kyle Allen already signed, but Fitzpatrick wouldn’t say if he believes he’s been handed the starting job already.
“I mean, my whole career I’ve never been handed anything,” he told Team 980. “I’ve never been promised anything, I’ve had to go out there and earn it. I don’t view this opportunity as anything different.
“I’m gonna go in and do the best I can to earn it, to earn the respect of my teammates and coaches and usually good things happen after that.”
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Fitzpatrick added the only thing he was promised from Rivera and offensive coordinator Scott Turner was an opportunity for the chance to compete.
While football is what he does for a living, the 39-year-old is also a father of seven kids and that seems to keep him grounded, even when doing 6:30 a.m. radio interviews.
“Well we’ve got the drop-off circuit, you know? So I’ve got to get some of them to school,” Fitzpatrick told The Team 980. “We’ve got pre-school, we have three in elementary school, we’ve got middle school, and we’ve got band practice for middle school, so there’s four different drop-offs today and then three different pickups. So essentially I get to rest for about an hour before I start having to start picking them up again.”
With that in mind, Fitzpatrick learning a new offense, working with a young Washington Football Team, and making them better on the field should be a piece of cake.
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