Ryan Fitzpatrick Could Become Ultimate NFL Insurance Policy for the 2016 Season

The NFL is a weird little world—one in which last year's 25th-rated passer, Brock Osweiler, was in such high demand that he signed a four-year, $72 million deal on the first day of free agency, while last year's 24th-rated passer, Ryan Fitzpatrick, remains unsigned 79 days later. 

The major difference between those two quarterbacks is that Osweiler is 25 years old, while Fitzpatrick is 33. One is being paid for his potential (Osweiler has just seven career starts under his belt), while the other has yet to be paid despite being a known commodity (Fitzpatrick has started 105 games for six different teams).

Fitzpatrick is coming off the two best seasons of his NFL career. He threw a New York Jets franchise-record 31 touchdown passes while helping Gang Green win 10 games in 2015. He was the league's ninth-rated passer with the Houston Texans in 2014. He's a smart, experienced Harvard grad, and he has made it clear he plans on playing in 2016. 

"I'm playing," he said at a charity golf event Monday, per ESPN.com's Rich Cimini. "I'm playing football next year."

The question is: Where?

The Jets make a lot of sense, but, as Cimini pointed out, the two sides have been engaged in a standoff for much of the offseason. Understandably so, because Osweiler and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford (who signed a two-year, $36 million deal in March) have turned the quarterback market into a fun house.

It's hard to blame Fitzpatrick—who has made nearly $40 million in his career and is employable off the field—for wanting something within the Osweiler-Bradford range. Bleacher Report's Jason Cole reported in March that the Jets weren't even offering $10 million a year. Too boot, New York has since added second-round pick Christian Hackenberg to a quarterback stable that already included young pivots Geno Smith and Bryce Petty. 

Category	First 7 seasons	Last 4 seasons
Record	18-33-1	25-28
Comp.%	59.2	61.0
TD-INT	68-65	86-51
YPA	6.3	7.1
Rating	75.0	86.7

The league's quarterback supply-and-demand dynamics have shifted quite dramatically the last two years. Quarterbacks have been selected with the top two picks of each of the last two drafts, automatically taking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles out of any free-agent sweepstakes. Meanwhile, 35-or-older veterans Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Drew Brees, Tony Romo and Eli Manning have mastered the art of anti-aging. 

Sure, Peyton Manning is gone, but the Denver Broncos are gambling on their defense, a relatively young and cheap Mark Sanchez, and late first-round pick Paxton Lynch. With Manning's backup taking a high-paid job as a starter with the Houston Texans and teams such as Cleveland, Oakland and Washington gambling on non-first-round picks under center in hopes of finding the next Russell Wilson, we're left with no guaranteed starting jobs for a starting-caliber quarterback such as Fitzpatrick. 

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

For now, anyway, Fitzpatrick has become the league's shared quarterback insurance policy. And that makes him a hell of a wild card as mandatory minicamps and training camps approach in June and July, respectively. 

The Indianapolis Colts could have used a Ryan Fitzpatrick when they lost Peyton Manning for the entire 2011 season, or when they lost Andrew Luck in 2015. The Arizona Cardinals could have used him when they lost Carson Palmer to a torn ACL in 2014. The Dallas Cowboys could have used him when they lost Tony Romo for an extended stretch last year. 

Which team will suddenly need a quarterback this summer or fall? And when that happens, is there any doubt regarding whom it will call? 

The few quarterbacks who have the requisite experience and ability to save a team that has lost its starter are usually employed by the time we're done with the draft and have reached the month of May. But this year, one is still lingering on a market that has been flooded by prospects without losing many veterans. 

In quarterback terms, Fitzpatrick isn't old, but he isn't young. He hasn't been whatever the hell elite is, but he has been consistently and increasingly steady at an unsteady position in an unsteady league. He remains a free agent as a result of a perfect storm in the quarterback market, but he'll inevitably receive a call the moment a regular starter goes down or a borderline starter begins to show signs of busting. 

Fitzpatrick fell just short of leading a good-but-not-great Jets team to the playoffs last season, and there's a reason half a dozen teams have given him chances to start over an 11-year period. 

Category
Record	18-12
Comp.%	61.0
TD-INT	49-25
YPA	7.3
Rating	89.7

In the last four years, Fitzpatrick has 86 touchdowns to 51 interceptions in 53 starts with Buffalo, Tennessee, Houston and the Jets. And dating back to December of 2013, he has won 18 of his last 30 starts (a winning percentage of .600). 

That can't be ignored for much longer. 

I get it, it's May. Every team is unbeaten, every unproven player appears destined to succeed, and nobody outside of Jacksonville is hurt. But it's only a matter of time before teams begin to experience that deep sense of fallibility regarding their depth charts, particularly at the quarterback position. 

When that happens, Fitzpatrick might, in fact, be the insurance policy for a team in need.

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.