Are the Jets going to move on without Ryan Fitzpatrick? Would they actually head into the season with just Geno Smith and two extremely raw youngsters at quarterback? The team is really dug in against the idea of giving Fitzpatrick much of a contract.
That’s got to be annoying and frustrating for Fitzpatrick. He’s outplayed a lot of other quarterbacks who’ve gotten really good contracts, most notably Sam Bradford, Brock Osweiler and Chase Daniel.
If the Jets lose Fitzpatrick that could be a sizable blow to their offense, especially around the end zone. Over the last three years, he’s produced touchdowns on 40 percent of his pass plays inside the 10-yard line, 3rd-best in the league. More impressively, Fitzpatrick has managed those numbers while playing for three different coaches, three different offenses and three different teams (Tennessee, Houston and New York).
In the 2013-15 seasons, 25 quarterbacks have run at least 50 plays in that part of the field, and they break down as follows …
| PASSING INSIDE THE 10 (2013-15) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Plays | TD | 2Pt | Pct | Int | sack |
| Kirk Cousins | 57 | 23 | 2 | 43.9% | 0 | 1 |
| Tony Romo | 84 | 33 | 1 | 40.5% | 1 | 5 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 72 | 29 | 0 | 40.3% | 1 | 4 |
| Matthew Stafford | 123 | 46 | 3 | 39.8% | 0 | 4 |
| Andy Dalton | 83 | 31 | 1 | 38.6% | 6 | 3 |
| Tom Brady | 130 | 48 | 2 | 38.5% | 3 | 7 |
| Drew Brees | 115 | 44 | 0 | 38.3% | 2 | 7 |
| Peyton Manning | 133 | 48 | 2 | 37.6% | 1 | 3 |
| Philip Rivers | 118 | 42 | 2 | 37.3% | 5 | 2 |
| Andrew Luck | 113 | 37 | 5 | 37.2% | 2 | 8 |
| Cam Newton | 76 | 27 | 1 | 36.8% | 0 | 5 |
| Jay Cutler | 125 | 38 | 8 | 36.8% | 5 | 2 |
| Eli Manning | 116 | 42 | 0 | 36.2% | 5 | 4 |
| Matt Ryan | 126 | 43 | 2 | 35.7% | 4 | 3 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 143 | 40 | 11 | 35.7% | 1 | 5 |
| Blake Bortles | 77 | 25 | 2 | 35.1% | 2 | 3 |
| Josh McCown | 59 | 17 | 3 | 33.9% | 3 | 4 |
| Joe Flacco | 103 | 31 | 3 | 33.0% | 1 | 3 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 122 | 39 | 1 | 32.8% | 3 | 2 |
| Russell Wilson | 86 | 28 | 0 | 32.6% | 2 | 9 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 152 | 43 | 5 | 31.6% | 4 | 9 |
| Nick Foles | 52 | 13 | 3 | 30.8% | 3 | 4 |
| Alex Smith | 83 | 23 | 2 | 30.1% | 1 | 4 |
| Carson Palmer | 93 | 28 | 0 | 30.1% | 2 | 3 |
| Colin Kaepernick | 74 | 20 | 1 | 28.4% | 2 | 2 |
—Ian Allan