Ryan Fitzpatrick Proves He Can Guide New York Jets Offense to Success

Jets backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick may not be the franchise quarterback that New York has needed since the days of Joe Namath. 

But he may not need to be.

Fitzpatrick played the first half of the Jets' 28-18 victory over the New York Giants, and completed nine of his 14 passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns. The first of those touchdowns was an 18-yard strike to wide receiver Eric Decker down the seam. The second was a well-blocked screen to running back Zac Stacy that went 24 yards before Stacy somersaulted into the end zone.

The Jets have loaded their roster with top-end starters at nearly every position. The only thing they need is serviceable quarterback play. They don't even need their passer to play at an elite level. They just need him to manage the game, keep the offense moving and put points on the board.

Fitzpatrick was efficient. He found the open man. He made some nice throws, but mostly, he just did what any NFL quarterback should be able to do. And that should be enough for the Jets to find success in 2015.

If you ask Fitzpatrick, though, he's not content with being just another NFL quarterback. Even at 32 years old, he thinks it's still possible to have a breakout year.

"Yeah, I don't think there’s any doubt about that," Fitzpatrick told Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. "So much of the game for the quarterback is the mental side of it. Everybody always talks about my arm and how horrible it is. I promise...you can put on some tape (and see) that I can make all the throws that you want me to make or that I need to make. ... I see myself continuing to get better rather than declining."

The journeyman has been at the controls of the Jets offense as the first-team quarterback for a couple of weeks, but he already has command of the system. That's probably because he was in the system for three years with the Buffalo Bills under Chan Gailey, who is now the offensive coordinator for the Jets.

It was never about being an explosive, big-play quarterback when Fitzpatrick was with the Bills. It was about throwing to the open receiver and relying on the strength of a formidable running game.

In Buffalo, Gailey centered his offense around short and intermediate passes (less than 20 yards downfield) over the middle to work around Fitzpatrick's inability to throw accurate downfield passes. In 2011, Fitzpatrick attempted 282 of his 569 passes (49.6 percent) in that range, and he completed 202 of those passes (71.6 percent), according to ProFootballFocus.com.

It appears that will continue to be the case, as two of Fitzpatrick's five incompletions were on deep attempts to wide receiver Shaq Evans. In Buffalo (2010-2012), Fitzpatrick was accurate on 57 of his 179 pass attempts that traveled 20 yards or more (31.8 percent).

The big difference is that the Bills never ran the ball enough under Gailey in Buffalo, but that doesn't appear to be a problem in New York. On Saturday, the Jets called five run plays and two pass plays on their second drive of the game, and running back Chris Ivory took those five carries for 35 yards. The three primary backs—Ivory, Stacy and Bilal Powell—finished with 21 carries for 110 yards (5.2 yards per carry). 

With a deep group of capable backs, balance is exactly what the Jets offense needs—far more than they need to air it out. Yes, Gailey will revert back to the spread offense at some point, but that doesn't mean the Jets have to abandon the run in the process.

That efficient running game is enough to keep the pressure off of Fitzpatrick and allow him to be a game manager instead of carrying the burden of the offense. If Gailey learned just one thing from his time in Buffalo, it should be that the offense can be much more effective when it makes use of all of its best weapons. That includes the running game.

It's not always going to be pretty with Fitzpatrick at the helm of the offense. If he can just play within the system and make use of his weapons—not to mention getting more dominant performances from his defense—the Jets could stay afloat in 2015.