Fitzpatrick Feeling Re-Energized

Ryan Fitzpatrick has had more successful seasons, but he'll always cherish what happened in 2019.

The Miami Dolphins quarterback enjoyed it so much, in fact, it stands out among his many years in the NFL.

"Last year may have been my best season in terms all the obstacles that we had faced, the adversity, the things that we went through throughout the season and what we did at the tail end of the season," Fitzpatrick said Wednesday during former Bills teammate Eric Wood's "What's Next" podcast. "I view last year as such a success for the Miami organization and what we were able to do and improve throughout that season and the last game of the year, beating New England in a must-win for them in Foxborough."

Fitzpatrick earned team MVP honors for the Dolphins in 2019 when he helped the Dolphins rebound from an 0-7 start to finish 5-4 in their final nine games.

The highlight, of course, was the 27-24 victory in the season finale that took away the New England Patriots' bye in the first round of the playoffs and represented the Dolphins' first victory at Gillette Stadium since 2008.

Ryan Fitzpatrick may have just beat Tom Brady in New England pic.twitter.com/fqAThDchI2
— Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) December 29, 2019

Fitzpatrick, who has been in the NFL since 2005 when he was a seventh-round pick of the St. Louis Rams out of — everyone should know this by now — Harvard, will turn 38 in November and has seven children.

He said the thought of retirement crossed his mind after a difficult 2016 when he was with the New York Jets, but he rebounded with two solid seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before he signed a two-year contract with the Dolphins in March 2019.

The Ryan Fitzpatrick-DeVante Parker connection was magical all season 😮

(via @thecheckdown)pic.twitter.com/ZGFo3JaGdN
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 11, 2020

"After 2016, which was such a brutal, rough season for me, not physically but mentally and emotionally, that was the first year I started thinking, ‘Is it worth it for me? Is it worth it for my family to put them through this?’ " Fitzpatrick said. "Because moving every single year, as the kids are getting older — and somehow we keep getting more kids — it becomes more and more difficult to do.

"I still just have this burning desire to play. And then when I was in a position where when I signed with Tampa, I signed as the backup. I felt like there was more there. There was more left. I didn’t know what I was going to do with all this knowledge that I’d built up. I still wanted to play the game, but I didn’t necessarily know if I’d have that opportunity again."

Fitzpatrick did get that opportunity, he made the most of it, and now three years later that's why he wants to keep going and keep leading the Dolphins offense, even with the arrival of Tua Tagovailoa.

"To me, that was such a successful season and one that I’m so proud of," Fitzpatrick said. "But it just leaves me like wanting more. Like, I want to still play, I want to still be out there.”

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