New York Jets DC Gregg Williams on Miami Dolphins Ryan Fitzpatrick: 'He’s a friend of mine, but not on gameday'
Former New York Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is putting together one of the best passing seasons in the NFL this year. For Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who counts Fitzpatrick as a friend, Sunday’s match-up means setting aside their relationship for a few hours.
Set to turn 38-years old next month, Fitzpatrick is coming off a tremendous Week 5 win at the San Francisco 49ers where he threw three touchdowns and had 350 passing yards. With the win, the Dolphins improved to 2-3. The Jets, with a struggling offense and defense, are 0-5 after a Week 5 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
In his second years as defensive coordinator of the Jets, Williams is familiar with Fitzpatrick, having faced him as an opponent multiple times. But Williams and Fitzpatrick were both with the Tennessee Titans in 2013. Williams was an assistant coach with the Titans.
“You know and not only faced him on lots of different teams he’s been on, but was on the same team with him and had a chance to go against him in practice quite a bit. He’s a friend of mine, but not on gameday, I tease him about that all the time because he’ll wave and he’ll do some things during the ballgame to see if he can piss me off and he does a good job with it,” Williams said in a virtual press conference on Friday.
“But here’s the deal, Fitz is a gunslinger now. He’s very intelligent and the big thing is when he starts off hot, he has a chance to just get hotter. And we’ve got to do a good job knowing that when you think you’ve got the guy covered, that does not make any difference to him, he’ll still throw it and stick it in a tight window.”
The last time Fitzpatrick played the Jets, he had a ho-hum afternoon in what was a 22-21 Dolphins loss last December. He was 21-of-37 for 235 yards with an interception and added 65 rushing yards on seven carries.
He is showing no signs of age, the last three seasons (28 appearances, 25 starts) having seen him with a higher completion percentage then his career average. This season, he has 1,344 passing yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions, an impressive 70.6 completion percentage the best of his 16-year NFL career.
“I just think as the years have gone on for me, I’ve become more accurate. I’ve become a better decision-maker, but more accurate in the way that I’m throwing the football, and I think that’s shown up a little bit this year. I don’t know,” Fitzpatrick said on Wednesday.
“Also for me, it’s not necessarily about the physical anymore. I mean I think I could still make all the throws, but it’s never really been about that for me; so feeling comfortable in this system, feeling comfortable with the guys I’m playing with and right now, just spreading the ball around. There’s been other years and seasons where we haven’t either had as much talent or we’ve had one superstar where he’s getting force-fed a lot of the time.
“I think with the group right now, we’ve got a lot of really talented guys that have different skillsets. And we’ve said that in the past, but I think with the ball being spread out more, that’s also helped with my efficiency and accuracy a little bit.”
The Jets, winless through five games, are clearly in a rebuild to the point that things are so bad that might need to tear this thing down already and start rebuilding…again. The Dolphins, however, invested heavily this offseason and, couple that with a tremendous NFL Draft this past April, appear to be ready to take a step forward.
Fitzpatrick, a veteran who has played for eight teams but never at any one stop for more than four years, is the perfect quarterback for this team. Not only is he a bridge and mentor for rookie Tua Tagovailoa but he is ideal for a young offensive line and a young team in general.
His calming presence, something he showed through his two seasons with the Jets, is a fit for the Dolphins in the here and now. His first season with the Jets in 2015 saw him have one of the best passing seasons in franchise history and personal bests with 3,905 yards and 31 touchdowns.
This season, Fitzpatrick is on pace to exceed those passing yards.
“The other thing that he’s very sharp on, he’s very sharp on diagnosing what he believes we’re in defensively and he’s one of those guys that challenges me, it challenges us to do what pre-snap disguises we have, he does an excellent job,” Williams said.
“And we used to fight in practice about that a lot when he would be doing those kind of things. He’s playing very well right now. He’s doing a really good job with the deep shots right now on some of the things he’s throwing the deep ball on. So, we’ve got to fix some things and it’s a copycat league, we know we’re going to get it and we got to play better than we did the last time.”
Fitzpatrick played his college football at Harvard. It has nothing to do with this story but has to be mentioned in any piece on the Dolphins quarterback or a Cris Collinsworth monologue.
