Ever since the Dolphins drafted Tua Tagovailoa in the first round this April, Ryan Fitzpatrick has said all the right things when it comes to acknowledging that the rookie is the future of the quarterback position in Miami.
Fitzpatrick just didn’t expect the future to come so soon. Fitzpatrick is coming off two strong games in wins that have the Dolphins at 3-3 through three weeks, but he was benched by head coach Brian Flores this week and it was clear when he spoke to reporters that the news hit him hard.
“I was shocked by it,” Fitzpatrick said, via Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. “It definitely caught me off guard. It was a hard thing for me to hear yesterday, just digesting the news. My heart just hurt all day.”
Fitzpatrick has been benched before, but said this one hit different because of how invested he was in the Dolphins and “felt it was my team” as a result. He said he hasn’t thought about what comes next for him beyond wondering if he’s played for the last time, but did say he won’t “go in there and ask or demanding anything” involving a move to a different team this season.
The Dolphins would probably be unlikely to make such a move given the chance that they’ll need to use a different quarterback at some point in the next 10 games and that likely leaves Fitzpatrick to play out the year as one of the top backup options in the entire league.