Following a road win against the Indianapolis Colts, Todd Bowles named Ryan Fitzpatrick the starter for “even when Geno Smith returns.” Following that statement, Fitzpatrick would lead the Jets in a 24-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles where many of his same issues from the previous week rose again but this time the Jets were unable to overcome them. We’ll look at some of the good and bad from Fitzpatrick’s week 3 game.

Stats

Ryan Fitzpatrick – 35/58 for 283 yards, 4.88 YPA, 2 TDs, 3 INTs

Passing Chart

Outside Left Numbers Left Middle Numbers Right Outside Right 30+ X XT 20-29 TT B B B 10-19 BPCN C BPXCB CCP CCCP 1-9 CCBBC CCNCB BCCC CNC NBXC Behind LOS CB CCC CC CC

C = Complete

X = Incmomplete

N = Not QB Fault

B = Bad Pass

P = Perfect

T = Potential Interception/Actual Interception

Bad Throws (B+T) 14 Perfect Throws 4 Not QB Faults 4

Ryan Fitzpatrick’s Beard AKA the Good Parts of Ryan Fitzpatrick

In comparison to Fitzpatrick’s week 2 Jets game against the Colts where he stalled the offense repeatedly and seemed to get carried by his scheme and supporting cast (on both sides of the ball) this time around Fitzpatrick actually showed some better individual plays. Before we get into the bad parts (and there’s a lot of those), let’s look at the good scenes from this game.

Getting the Basics Down

It’s weird how much Fitzpatrick has struggled with the basics for a player who spent four years playing for this offensive coordinator. It was expected that his grasp of the simple parts of this offense would lead to him being able to make better throws since he doesn’t have to worry about remembering the scheme or a heavy adjustment period. That hasn’t been the case and it still really isn’t the case, but against Philadelphia it was better than it had been the week before.

3-5-NYJ 23 (13:16) (Shotgun) 14-R.Fitzpatrick pass short left to 11-J.Kerley to NYJ 27 for 4 yards (27-M.Jenkins).

Here’s an easy one, on Fitzpatrick’s second throw of the game he’s got cover-1 man coverage which is revealed by Jeremy Kerley’s motioning from one side of the field to the other, he takes the snap and immediately starts reading the left (this is actually a bad trait that Fitzpatrick has and appears often, it’ll cause him to tunnel-vision onto players) and throws a well placed ball for Jeremy Kerley, who’s got a tiny amount of separation from his corner. It’s a little high but it’s far better than many of Fitzpatrick’s other throws even though this is really a basic expectation from a QB.

1-10-NYJ 12 (12:55) 14-R.Fitzpatrick pass deep right to 19-D.Smith pushed ob at NYJ 28 for 16 yards (31-B.Maxwell).

Fitzpatrick is asked to rollout after a playaction and do a quick high-low read. There’s three routes to throw to at different vertical lengths along the sideline, starting with the flat route from Jeremy Kerley, then there’s Marshall’s drag route, and finally Devin Smith’s comeback. Fitzpatrick notices the coverage flowing towards the shorter routes and takes the deeper throw to Devin Smith, which is exactly on time and well placed.

2-11-NYJ 27 (11:48) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 14-R.Fitzpatrick pass short left to 15-B.Marshall pushed ob at NYJ 43 for 16 yards (26-W.Thurmond).

On this play, the Eagles show a cover-2 on the pre-snap that turns into a cover-3 with both safeties rotating over to their left and the RCB taking the deep third above him, while the LCB sits in the flat. Fitzpatrick drops back with a quick glance down the middle (you still want to see him hold the middle a bit longer) and sees the safeties flowing to towards the left side signaling the cover-3 (which will generally have a hole in the intermediate areas near the sideline) and immediately looks for Brandon Marshall who’s running an out route that’s posing as a corner route. The timing is good, Fitzpatrick enters his throwing motion just as Marshall begins breaking outside and he places it right at the sideline where there’s no shot of any player getting at the ball other than Marshall.

2-7-PHI 7 (9:41) 14-R.Fitzpatrick pass short right to 11-J.Kerley for 7 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Against a cover-4 zone in the endzone, Fitzpatrick has an awkward dropback before re-establishing himself upright. He’s reading the two intersecting routes on the right side, where a safety stands between Brandon Marshall’s drag and Jeremy Kerley’s post route. The safety leans forward, signaling that he’s coming downfield and at that moment Fitzpatrick enters his throwing motion, throwing a well placed pass to Kerley in the endzone. Fitzpatrick has the tendency to look for Marshall nearly immediately and throw it at him regardless of what the rest of the field looks like, but his decision here to remain in control and let the play develop gives the Jets an easy touchdown.

Chemistry with Brandon Marshall

Against the Colts, Fitzpatrick would rely on Marshall heavily as he’d adjust plays into slants and target him repeatedly. In this game, Fitzpatrick was able to get the most out of Marshall as his throws finally began to hit the target just right.

3-5-PHI 34 (:23) (Shotgun) 14-R.Fitzpatrick pass deep left to 15-B.Marshall to PHI 16 for 18 yards (27-M.Jenkins; 31-B.Maxwell).

3-4-NYJ 37 (4:20) (Shotgun) 14-R.Fitzpatrick pass short right to 15-B.Marshall to PHI 49 for 14 yards (31-B.Maxwell) [98-C.Barwin]. Penalty on PHI-31-B.Maxwell, Defensive Holding, declined.

Here’s two back to back plays where the Eagles show man coverage with Marshall split out wide. On both plays, Fitzpatrick makes a great back shoulder throw, allowing Marshall to uncover from his man and make some tough NFL catches. These are the kinds of plays that require a sense of trust and timing between players and these two are showing it. There’s one more play where this is even more visible.

2-10-PHI 16 (:12) (Shotgun) 14-R.Fitzpatrick pass deep right to 15-B.Marshall for 16 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

This is a play of pure trust. Last week, Fitzpatrick had an endzone throw where he rolled out to his right, saw Marshall turn to follow him, and threw a well timed throw that was way off the mark. That time, Marshall attempted to lead Fitzpatrick to the throw, by setting up the space for him.

This time Fitzpatrick is leading Marshall.

The pocket becomes compromised when LT D’Brickashaw Ferguson’s rusher receives a shove from LG James Carpenter. That shove puts him directly into the path of Fitzpatrick, who moves up into space. When Fitzpatrick steps up, he makes a quick decision to throw into the space underneath Marshall, who is still running towards the post in the middle of the field. Throwing at that post would be a huge mistake because the safeties both have leverage and the potential to undercut the throw. When Fitzpatrick gets into his motion, Marshall realizes immediately based on where his body is pointing and the direction he’s running that he needs to cut his route and begin adjusting, and does, resulting in a touchdown. This ball is thrown high, but that’s fine here because an Eagles player is sitting in the throwing lane.

There’s a few more plays in this game that show Fitzpatrick making good reads and throws (well by good, i mean the kind that you expect out of an NFL starter) but they’re heavily overshadowed by the bad parts of Ryan Fitzpatrick in this game.

Continue to the next page as we look at some of Fitzpatrick’s issues in this game.