Fitz Follow-Up: Impressive Year as the Starter

As the Miami Dolphins finalize their preparations for their Week 6 game against the New York Jets, it’s a good time to remind everyone it was in that week that the team turned to Ryan Fitzpatrick as their quarterback for good.

Fitzpatrick replaced Josh Rosen late in the third quarter of that Week 6 game against Washington and has started every game since. In fact, he’s played every snap except for three plays against the Indianapolis Colts when he was being evaluated for a concussion.

Fitzpatrick has made 16 consecutive starts for the Dolphins, or the equivalent of a full season. And his performance in those 16 games has rivaled anything the Dolphins have had at quarterback since Dan Marino ended his Hall of Fame career in 2000.

In those 16 games, Fitzpatrick completed 392 of 602 passes (65.1 percent) for 4,438 yards with 25 touchdowns, 14 interceptions and a 91.2 passer rating.

Here’s how impressive Fitzpatrick’s 16-game run has been:

Th 4,438 yards represents a higher total than any Dolphins quarterback has produced since 1994 when Marino passed for 4,453 yards.

In team history, only two quarterbacks have ever completed more than 65 percent of their passes in a season — Chad Pennington in 2008 (67.4) and Ryan Tannehill in 2016 (67.1). Both of those seasons, incidentally, ended with the Dolphins in the playoffs.

Fitzpatrick’s completion percentage through five games this season is at 70.1, on pace to beat Pennington’s franchise record.

In terms of completions, Fitzpatrick’s 392 matches the franchise single-season record set by Tannehill in 2014. The 25 touchdown passes? Only Tannehill with 27 in 2014 has had that many in a season since 1994.

Fitzpatrick talked Thursday about what he’s been doing better in the later stages of his career.

“I just think as the years have gone on for me, I’ve become more accurate,” Fitzpatrick said. “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. 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.”