Reaction from Flores, quarterbacks after Dolphins name Fitzpatrick Week 1 starter
Brian Flores officially named Ryan Fitzpatrick the Dolphins’ Week 1 starter at quarterback late Thursday, going with the established, steady hand over Josh Rosen, the young, talented player who Flores suggested just isn’t ready — yet.
“I told both quarterbacks that I feel like that’s the best thing for the team, puts us in the best position to win,” Flores said. “That’s how we’re going moving forward. .... Like I said all along, after a thorough evaluation, OTAs, training camp, games, practice, I felt like this was the best move for this team going into the season. Ryan’s done a really good job from a leadership standpoint, from an execution standpoint, and we feel like that’s the best thing for this team.”
Flores said the coaching staff made the decision “over the course of the last week or so.” Rosen said he learned the news before Thursday night’s game.
The Dolphins on some level have to be disappointed that their potential quarterback of the future could not beat out a 15-year journeyman who likely would not be a starter on any other team.
But Flores insisted he was “excited about” Rosen, and that “I think he’ll get there. I do. I really do. I think he’ll get there at some point.”
The reaction from the two quarterbacks, who both spoke from the podium post-game, was what you would expect.
Fitzpatrick, who was very open about his desire to win the job, was pumped.
Rosen — whose career has not gone to plan in the year and a half since the Cardinals took him 10th overall — was disappointed, but determined to change Flores’ mind in the weeks to come.
“Not great,” Rosen said, when asked how it felt to get the bad news.
But he’s going to continue to compete and believes “it’s only time [until] this team is mine.”
When a reporter asked how he can get his head around being a backup on a team that didn’t even draft him high just a year ago, Rosen responded:
“I think I’m in a pretty good spot. It’s not the spot I prefer to be in. It doesn’t change my progression as a quarterback. It doesn’t change. Last year everything switched pretty quickly. They told me at the beginning of the year I was supposed to sit out and learn from Sam [Bradford]. And that didn’t happen. So I think any sort of projection of my career is kind of irrelevant or really difficult to pin down at this point. I’m a way better quarterback than I was a year ago. I think the future will be pretty bright. I wouldn’t say it’s a setback but it’s a temporary, not hurdle, but part of a journey.”
This is will be the eighth team that Fitzpatrick has started a game for — which is an NFL record.
“I know I have more confidence in myself than anybody else in this world,” Fitzpatrick said, “so sometimes that’s a detriment but a lot of time that works in favor and so I’m always confident in who I am and what I am as a player and this where I wanted to be and what I worked to get.”
Fitzpatrick added: “I’m still doing this, I’m still playing because I want to be out there on the field and I want to be in those tough times, in the huddle when we’re facing adversity and trying to figure things out together and work through things. That’s the joy that I have in this game and it is never easy out there.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2019 at 12:21 AM.