With the Jets reporting to camp on Wednesday and their first practice scheduled for Thursday, both sides worked to hash out the long-expected deal.
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For the past 5-months New York Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and the team have been in a contract dispute.
In March, the Jets made an offer of three years for $24 million, including $12 million guaranteed in the first year, but there were some questions about the guaranteed money in the last two years. It was a huge sigh of relief for everyone when Fitzpatrick signed his deal and showed up to the Jets’ facility on Wednesday.
“The 33-year-old spoke on the process calling it a long process”.
“I’ll tell you what”.
“I was 10 minutes away just sitting at home getting calls and texts every day”, Fitzpatrick continued. It was hovering. looming over my head for five, six months. The Jets preferred to give him $8 or $9 million if they were going to strike a one-year pact. Coach Todd Bowles stated from day one that if Fitzpatrick signed the deal, he would be the starter. I didn’t really love that part of it. “I think being in that team meeting was just symbolic”.
This will make the locker room happy, especially Marshall and Eric Decker, Fitzpatrick’s receivers. That is solid numbers for a starting quarterback that went undrafted last season. He’s not a quarterback that will scare you, but he did have a career season in 2015 and helped the Jets to a 10-6 record that almost had the team in the playoffs. Geno Smith was due to be the starter in 2015 before his jaw was broken when he was punched by a teammate last summer.
Playing with power forward-sized wideouts Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, Fitzpatrick threw 31 touchdown passes a year ago, a single-season team record, and compiled a career-best 3,905 yards through the air.
Fitzpatrick has thrown for 23,178 yards with 154 touchdowns and 116 interceptions in 11 National Football League seasons.
He added: “I thought that it would always get done”. However, it seems like they were hesitant to talk about Fitzpatrick’s situation. I wanted something that was fair and reasonable. That’s all I wanted.
The return of Fitzpatrick was absolutely enormous for the Jets, whose players were seeming to get a bit uneasy about him not ultimately signing.
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Fitzpatrick’s signing gives NY another year before having to decide if Christian Hackenberg or Bryce Petty could be their quarterback of the future. They would’ve told The Beard to take a hike if they felt Smith were anywhere close to Fitzpatrick.
