Ryan Fitzpatrick was ‘shocked,’ heartbroken by benching

Ryan Fitzpatrick has played well for the Miami Dolphins this season and led them to a 3-3 record, which is why many were surprised to learn this week that he will be benched for rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. The move caught Fitzpatrick off guard, too.

Fitzpatrick spoke with reporters on Wednesday about head coach Brian Flores making a QB switch during the bye week. The 37-year-old says he was “shocked” and extremely disappointed.

“I was shocked by it. It definitely caught me off guard,” Fitzpatrick said, via Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. “It was a hard thing for me to hear (on Tuesday), just digesting the news. My heart just hurt all day.”

Fitzpatrick knew he was a placeholder for Tagovailoa in Miami, but he clearly felt he had done enough to keep the starting job for at least the remainder of 2020. Now that he has been benched again, he admits he is uncertain about what the future holds for him.

“I’ve been a starter, I’ve been benched all kinds of different ways … but this was kind of the first place other than Buffalo that I’ve been fully committed and invested,” Fitzpatrick said. “I felt it was my team.

“I basically got fired yesterday and my day today consisted of zoom meetings with the guy who fired me and sitting in a room with the guy who replaced me for four hours.”

While Fitzpatrick has said all of the right things and gone out of his way to help Tagovailoa since the offseason, he clearly did not take the news well.

Fitzpatrick was benched coming off two dominant victories. The Dolphins beat the New York Jets 24-0 on Sunday and the San Francisco 49ers 43-17 the week before that. While he has thrown seven interceptions on the season, he’s played well enough to keep Miami squarely in the hunt in the AFC East. He also helped the team put an end to the tanking talk last year with his steady play.

Flores expressed frustration over the way the Tagovailoa news got out, but it doesn’t sound like that was an issue for Fitzpatrick. He’s simply upset he lost his job, which is totally understandable given the circumstances.