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Some might not make the connection, but something happened today that does alter the Ryan Fitzpatrick free agent landscape a tad. Let’s take a look.
The Denver Broncos matched the four-year, $18 million offer sheet the Miami Dolphins gave to running back C.J. Anderson.
It’s a deal with a $5 million signing bonus and $7.6 million guaranteed.
So what does this have to do with Fitzpatrick?
Well, we all know that Denver has a degree of interest in Fitzpatrick.
Just like the Jets, Denver wants him to lower his asking price.
But Denver has a very tight cap situation, and it just got tighter with Anderson coming back.
Most people thought they would let him walk.
However, now that they are bringing Anderson back, they have less money to spend on Fitz even if he lowers his price.
So this Anderson deal helps the Jets in a roundabout way.
And as I blogged today on this site, the Jets are also a better fit for Fitz than Denver for another reason.
In Denver, he will have to compete with Mark Sanchez (and perhaps another candidate) for the starting quarterback job.
With the Jets, he’s the starter if/when he returns.
Now I do think he would beat out Sanchez in Denver, but if you were Fitz, wouldn’t you want to avoid yet another QB competition, and go to a place where you are “the man” the second you walk in the building?
The answer to that is obvious. Go to the Jets.
Quarterback competitions are tedious.
But that doesn’t mean he should cave and take essentially the Chase Daniel backup contract.
A fan today wrote the following on Facebook – “The longer [Fitzpatrick} waits, the more the Jets will be anxious to pull the trigger and go with another option to acquire at quarterback in free agency. I think they’ll either make a move for RG3 or Kaepernick and stick to their defense/rushing attack being the strengths of the team. It’s unfortunate that Fitzpatrick doesn’t see just how great the situation will be next season with the Jets because he wants more money and feels he’s double what he’s realistically worth.”
Let me respond to this quickly.
While Fitz has his warts, RG3 and Colin Kaepernick would be train wrecks with the Jets. Neither reads defenses well, both have bad mechanics, both are struggling in the confidence department, and both are snippy with the media. This Jets beat corps would eat these two for lunch.
Fitz isn’t great, but he’s better than these two right now. This isn’t an athletic comparison, it’s a quarterback comparison. RGIII and Kaepernick are better, younger athletes, but Fitz is a better QB than both of them.
So if the Jets cut off the negotiations and signed one of those two to replace Fitz, they would cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Last time I checked, we are six months away from actual games. There is nothing wrong with Fitz and Jimmy Sexton playing the waiting game for a while (not six months, but for a few weeks at least), and trying to get the Jets to pay the QB more than Chase Daniel.
March 15, 2016
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