Before everyone goes out and gets Fitzmagic Washington jerseys, everyone needs to take a step back and take a deep breath. Washington is bringing back their entire quarterback room minus Dwayne Haskins, to whom I say good riddance, and is a story for another day. The contract is also another possible indicator of what Washington is planning to do with the quarterback position. Signing him for only a year and $10 million means they aren’t entirely assured of him being the starter the whole year let alone in the future. While I forecast Ryan as the opening day starter, the odds of him finishing up the year as the starting quarterback are slim.
*Live Look at Haskins in Pittsburgh
The main reason besides the contract indicating this is due to Ron Rivera having a soft spot for Kyle Allen. You don’t trade for a backup quarterback unless you have hopes of him transforming into something more. Despite his gruesome injury, the reports are saying he should be ready for training camp which means there will be a quarterback competition or at least the rumor mill will be churning about it. Also, he showed promise when he was the signal-caller completing 69 percent of his passes for over 600 yards and most importantly, protecting the football. He only had two turnovers in four games which is vital when you’re running the ball-control style football Rivera likes to operate. That’s the main hang-up with Fitzpatrick. He will come out and be magical but he is a gambler with the football, over the past three seasons in 32 games he has 40 turnovers, which is on par with his career in general and not something Rivera will look kindly upon.
Fantasy Impact
I would expect Fitzpatrick to be a serviceable starter, to begin with, especially with the addition of Curtis Samuel. However, it is all dependent on the recovery of Kyle Allen which will determine what type of leash he will be on. If Allen doesn’t show promise of returning to his 2020 pre-injury version and they don’t draft a quarterback, then Fitz will end up as the starter for the year. He will end up with around 4,000 yards, 35 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions. However, if Allen shows that he is back to last year’s capability or they draft a quarterback early on, then Fitzpatrick won’t be given much rope at all and it will all depend on their win-loss record. Rivera values the win over performance and as we have seen with the NFC East, all you need is to be around .500 come November to be in the hunt.
Final Verdict
Ryan Fitzpatrick should not be on your draft radar as of right now unless you’re in a Superflex league. Dynasty-wise, you better have some other options since he only has maybe one year left in him and we don’t know what type of freedom he will be given in our nation’s capital. As the off-season progresses, this could change completely. If it’s looking like Allen won’t be able to make a comeback and Washington doesn’t trade for or draft a quarterback, then he will be an outlier QB1 next season in redraft, landing in the QB10 to 14 range. While that may sound crazy, in his past 28 games, he has averaged 19.5 ppg, which when extrapolated for a season would have placed him as QB11 in 2020, and QB5 in 2019 and 2018. If Allen does look like he’s back or they draft one, then I wouldn’t draft Fitzpatrick at all. End of the day, I say we consult the magic 8-ball and it says, “Better not tell you now”, so come back later on when we have more information.
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