Tampa Bay Buccaneers will keep their backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick for one more year. The team has announced on Friday that they have resigned the 35-year-old to a 1-year deal.
Buccaneers signed Fitzpatrick last season, with the intention for him to be a backup and provide mentorship to their young quarterback Jameis Winston. He played in six games for the team, completing 96 of 163 passes (58.9%) for 1,103 yards, alongside seven touchdowns and three interceptions. He started three games, after Winston got hurt, and won two of them, averaging 248.3 passing yards per game and throwing just one interception.
“For me, at this point in my career, I’m not going to be given or gifted a chance to start anywhere probably,” – said Fitzpatrick. “And so, there’s a lot of things that weigh into it now for me that maybe didn’t years ago in terms of family and different situations. I enjoyed the year that I had here and the Tampa area in general. But I think Jameis did a good job this year, and you can see the improvement in his game, so I’d enjoy being back. I enjoyed my role this year.“
We got Fitz back for 2018! 😎📝#GoBucs ☠️ pic.twitter.com/kgZPULTyN0
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@TBBuccaneers) March 9, 2018
After being drafted into the league by St. Louis Rams, Ryan Fitzpatrick went on to play for several other NFL teams including Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills. After playing with different degrees of success, his best showing came in 2015, when he had 3,905 passing yards playing for New York Jets and broke the franchise passing touchdowns record with 31.
