The Miami Dolphins are going back to Fitzmagic.
Coach Brian Flores announced Wednesday that quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick would start Sunday's tilt versus the Buffalo Bills.
The move back to Fitzpatrick comes after Flores benchedJosh Rosen in the fourth quarter of Sunday's one-point loss to the Washington Redskins. Just three quarters after the coach had declared Rosen would get the balance of the season, and reiterated after the loss that the second-year signal-caller was still the starter, Flores changed his mind.
In making the flip-flop decision, the first-year coach underscored that Fitzpatrick gives the Dolphins the best chance to pull out a victory.
"We're going to start Fitz this week," Flores said. "Kind of came to that conclusion really over the last few days. Decided, we felt like that was the best thing for this team to give us an opportunity, the best opportunity for this team to go up into a tough environment and try to pull out a win. We do that on a weekly basis. What's the best way, what's the best grouping, set of players, offense, defense, kicking game -- to help us try to win the game. We felt that was the case this week."
It certainly was the case last week that the Dolphins moved the ball better with Fitzy under center than a struggling Rosen.
In Sunday's tilt versus a previously winless Redskins squad, Rosen was abysmal, completing 15-of-25 passes for 85 yards, 0 TDs, two brutal INTs, and a passer rating of 32.9 in three quarters of play. Fitzpatrick entered in the fourth quarter and immediately led Miami to a scoring drive and a final TD drive to set up a potential game-stealing 2-point try that ultimately failed. In just one quarter of play, Fitzmagic went 12-of-18 passing for 132 pass yards, 1 TD, 0 INT and a 106.7 passer rating.
While a disastrous offensive line and few weapons did Rosen no favors, it's clear Fitzpatrick's experience gives the Dolphins a better chance to potentially win games.
It felt as though had Fitzpatrick played the entire game Sunday, the Dolphins would have had a better chance to pull off its first win.
Against one of his many former teams, Fitzmagic will face a much tougher task Sunday in Buffalo, where the Bills sport one of the best defenses in the NFL.
"To me we need to play better offensively and defensively and the kicking game," Flores said. "We need to be more productive on offense. We really need to be more productive everywhere. But offensively we need more production. We got that out of Ryan the other day for a quarter. And we just felt like...this game and this week that that was the best chance for us to be productive. And we'll see how it goes. This is a tough team, an extremely tough defense. It'll be a tough crowd. We know that. It'll be a tough environment. So, it will be a major challenge. But we felt like given all those obstacles that Ryan gave us the best chance to be productive offensively."
It's highly possible, however, this isn't the final starting QB change we see in Miami this season.
