We all want Dolphins to unveil Tua, but appreciate the Ryan Fitzpatrick we just saw | Opinion
Miami Dolphins fans are in a hurry. I get that. Older Dolfans have passed down their frustrations with the franchise to their kids. Relevance has been a long time in reappearing. Every ounce of impatience is warranted
Now the thoroughbred is in the stall, ready to run. Ready to pass.
Tua Tagovailoa, savior in waiting. The high first-round draft pick waiting to be unleashed.
So everybody wants to jam down the fast-forward button and get to the future now. Understood.
Take a second, though.
Take a minute to appreciate the man who is minding the quarterback job while Tagovailoa is brought along with caution and diligence.
Ryan Fitzpatrick? He was brilliant Thursday night, that’s all. His beard was brilliant, as always. His game kept pace.
The Dolphins won for the first time in pandemic 2020, on the road, prevailing easily in Jacksonville, 31-13, and it was mostly because Fitzpatrick — at 37, with his eighth NFL team, a journeyman per se — was about as good as we have seen him.
He led Miami to touchdowns on each of the first three possessions, which no Fins team had done since November 2011. He completed his first 10 straight passes, a career best to begin a game. He threw TD strikes to Preston Williams and Mike Gesicki. He scored himself on a 1-yard run.
He would finish with an economical, efficient 18 completions in 20 attempts for 160 yards, two TDs and zero interceptions, a near-perfect 133.3 passer rating.
And a toothy grin split that bushy beard with every big play — a man toward the end of of his career, savoring every last moment. Fitzpatrick leads the NFL in beard. Maybe in joie de vivre as well.
Tyler Herro, at age 20, just won a huge NBA playoff game for the Miami Heat.
When Herro was born, Ryan Fitzpatrick was beginning classes at Harvard.
The veteran quarterback knows Tagovailoa’s time will come better than anyone. He is mentoring to make it come sooner.
“It’s about as good a situation as he could hope for,” said TV analyst Troy Aikman of Tagovailoa’s tutelage by Fitzpatrick.
Tagovailoa actually did make an appearance in Thursday’s game. However, it was in an ad for Gillette. (Who knew he even shaved yet?)
The rookie out of Alabama has yet to appear in an NFL game, the timetable for which has not yet been revealed by coach Brian Flores.
There is no hurry for that, despite the unfortunate “Tua” chants that bloomed briefly during the home opener last week vs. Buffalo, when Fitzpatrick happened to be in the midst of a 328-yard, two-TD performance in a rather encouraging 31-28 loss.
Thursday made it a second straight big game for Fitzpatrick, whose beard handily defeated Jaguars counterpart Gardner Minshew’s celebrated mustache in the ballyhooed battle of facial hair.
Fitzpatrick’s beard will be contained by neither helmet facemask nor the kind mandated to ward off the coronavirus. His beard blooms like that of an extra in “Game of Thrones,” a 19th Century U.S. president, or a member of ZZ Top.
Thursday night, that beard and its owner’s performance were among many positives for a rebuilding Dolphins team coming off an NFL-high number of draft picks and league-high spending in free agency.
Miami’s improvement over last year was palpable even at 0-2. A first win merely makes it easier to see, to verify.
The Dolphins’ defense dominated a Jags team that had scored 57 points in its first two games, and a quarterback, Minshew, who had been great in those two games. Miami’s D had four sacks, forced two turnovers.
Jacksonville is not a big or glamorous opponent, no. But the Jaguars were favored. They had beaten a good Indianapolis team and barely lost to a very good Tennessee team.
This was an impressive win.
And nobody was more impressive in it than the man with the beard.
He will step aside in time, Ryan Fitzpatrick will, and do so with the grace and smile we have come to expect.
Meantime, enjoy him while you can.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 11:24 PM.
