Ryan Fitzpatrick’s football career has been anything but boring. As of today, he has played for 10 different teams which is more than any other player in NFL history. Let’s take a closer look at how this happened and how his journey has taken shape.
Early life
Fitzpatrick was born on November 24, 1982 in Gilbert, Arizona.
He went to high school at the Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, Minnesota where he became starting quarterback for the football team in his freshman year.
As a junior, he helped lead his team to an appearance in the state semifinals where they lost 33-28 against Eden Prairie High School.
In his senior year, he helped lead them to an undefeated record and a state championship victory over Cretin-Derham Hall with Christian Ponder as their quarterback.
Fitzpatrick’s career at university
Fitzpatrick’s career at universityFitzpatrick enrolled at the Harvard University in 2001 on an academic scholarship where he majored in economics and played for the Crimson football team from 2002 through 2005.
In his first year, he started as the backup quarterback to Brian McClure but entered the starting line-up by the end of his freshman season.
In his sophomore year, he started all 10 games and led the Crimson to a 7-3 record. He finished his sophomore year with 1,155 yards passing, 9 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.
As a junior, he completed 65 out of 111 pass attempts for 798 yards with 6 touchdowns and 4 interceptions in 5 games; he also rushed for 244 yards and 6 touchdowns on 29 carries.
As a senior, Fitzpatrick had 1,240 passing yards, 10 passing touchdowns, 863 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. He finished his college career with a total of 36 touchdowns and 27 interceptions.
2002-2004: Fitzpatrick played for the Harvard Crimson football team from 2002 through 2005. While there, he majored in economics and started as backup quarterback to Brian McClure in his first year before becoming a starter by the end of his freshman season. He also rushed for 244 yards and 6 touchdowns on 29 carries in his junior year.
How many teams has Ryan Fitzpatrick played for
2005: Fitzpatrick declared for the 2005 NFL Draft but went undrafted after a poor showing at the combine where he recorded a 14-second 40-yard dash which would have been the slowest by any quarterback since 2000.
2009: Fitzpatrick joined the Bengals as a rookie free agent. In his first season, he passed for 1,422 yards and 11 touchdowns with 10 interceptions in eight starts.
In 2010, Fitzpatrick was named one of three finalists for AFC Offensive Player of the Year after throwing a franchise-record 31 touchdown passes and had a 96.2 passer rating which ranked second in the NFL behind only Tom Brady’s 111.1 rating. He finished 8th in MVP voting while being selected to his first Pro Bowl on January 30, 2011.
2010-2012: Fitzpatrick started in 41 games with the Cincinnati Bengals from 2009 through 2012, throwing for 8,029 yards and 50 touchdowns with 43 interceptions in that time.
2013-2015: Fitzpatrick joined the Buffalo Bills where he threw for 2,293 yards and 14 touchdowns with 16 interceptions in 2013 before passing for 3,400 yards and 24 touchdowns with 17 interceptions in 2014. In 2015, he had a career-high passing turnover rate of 18.4% along with an NFL low QBR of 14.0, throwing for 2,379 yards and 12 touchdowns with 17 interceptions before being benched following his seventh interception against the New York Jets on October 4th which prompted a heated argument with then-head coach Rex Ryan.
2016: Fitzpatrick joined the New York Jets where he had one of his best starts in 12 years as he set career highs in passing yards (394), touchdowns (4), and passer rating (156.3) while also throwing no interceptions, making him known as “Fitzmagic”.
2016-present: Fitzpatrick re-joined the New York Jets in 2016 and is currently their starting quarterback. He also became the first player to throw for at least 400 yards in three consecutive games.
Conclusion
There is no denying how great of a player Ryan Fitzpatrick has been. He had an amazing college career and he has had success in the NFL as well. He is on his tenth team currently and it’s no secret how talented he is. We hope he continues to play for many more years to come.
