Final Thoughts
Is Ryan Fitzpatrick a stud? In no way, shape or form is Fitz a stud QB in the NFL.
His forced throw to Decker in the endzone was a big time mistake. One that will continue to haunt him until he plays football again.
The biggest mistake Fitz made here was throwing a 50/50 ball to Decker. Marshall is the only guy who deserves 50/50 balls. Decker doesn’t have the ability to ensure that the pass will be an incompletion if things turn out badly. It seemed as though he wasn’t even expecting the ball. If anything, Decker should’ve taken the post route flatter, and thus, it would’ve resulted in an incompletion.
The final two drives of the game resulted in desperation interceptions by Fitzpatrick. Despite knowing how desperate each situation was, the Fitz bashers hang onto that first critical pick, which is completely fair considering the Jets were just one field goal away from taking the lead.
In being ultra fair, though, please call Fitz what he truly is.
While he’s not a stud, he is a serviceable starting quarterback who is automatically elevated to middle-of-the road starting quarterback when he’s teamed with Chan Gailey and Brandon Marshall. He’s a guy who does deserve up to $12 million a season in today’s NFL QB-crazy climate.
In no world would the Jets ever want to break that up and essentially start over again with a brand new unknown in Geno Smith.
We’ve seen the inconsistencies many times prior with Geno. Yes, he didn’t have Gailey. Yes, he was without Marshall. What Smith had at his disposal was average to below average. The names included Marty Mornhinweg, Eric Decker, Jeremy Kerley, Chris Ivory, and Jace Amaro.
Despite that argument, his poor decision making and questionable QB IQ shouldn’t have been so inconsistent even with that supporting cast.
Geno failed in the most basic areas competent starting NFL QBs need to be fully equipped with. Fitz, while missing much of the raw physical talents a Smith is blessed with, has those key cognitive attributes.
The video footage above doesn’t lie folks. Fitzpatrick wasn’t even close to acting as the only culprit in Week 17. Along with the rookie head coach, there were so many more players who failed the ultimate test that day.
It’s really simple: The 2015 Jets weren’t a team ready to compete in prime time, and until they find a Hall of Fame type QB to man the position, it’ll take 11 men to do their job.
