After 16 seasons in the NFL it’s the small things that bring Ryan Fitzpatrick joy, and keep him excited about playing when he actually gets those opportunities.
Or the look on his teammates faces when they see him bowl over a defender at the end of a scramble, or when his teammates score a touchdown on a pass he threw them.
And it is the surprise of hearing a play call come into his earpiece that gives him an opportunity to prove there’s still plenty of game left in his 38-year-old body.
That happened late in the fourth quarter of Miami’s 20-3 win over the New York Jets when offensive coordinator Chan Gailey called for Fitzpatrick to run an option scramble to the right on third-and-4, which gained 12 yards and helped Miami close out their seventh win of the season by extinguishing the game’s final 6:20 in one run-heavy possession.