The Washington Football Team shouldn’t have a quarterback competition. There… I said it.
The thought of not having a position competition, especially at quarterback, is foreign to so many fans. The thought process is, you need the competition to identify a starter and, in theory, if you’re looking over your shoulder, you’ll play harder. It’s an old, outdated concept. The goal should be to put your starting quarterback in the most comfortable position to succeed. The definition of “comfortable” is different for every team.
There are times where competition determines the starters but that has become few and far between, in part, because the quarterback position usually has one guy dominating a large percentage of a team’s salary cap. If the number is largely guaranteed, you have to give that player every chance to lose the job.
In Washington’s situation, that’s not the case. Ryan Fitzpatrick’s contract is a very manageable 1 year-$10M deal with $6M guaranteed. So why not have a competition? It’s simple. If Fitzpatrick is beat out by Taylor Heinicke or Kyle Allen, then Washington has no chance to win the NFC East and a very small percentage to make the playoffs.
That’s why, no matter what happens between now and opening day, Fitzpatrick needs to be the defined starter. It’s important that Fitzpatrick feels comfortable enough that a mistake or a series of mistakes won’t send him straight to the bench. Washington needs for Ryan Fitzpatrick to be Ryan Fitzpatrick. That includes living with some mind-numbing mistakes. That’s what you signed up for when you signed him and let’s be real, part of the attraction of Washington was that the organization doesn’t have their future at the quarterback position.
That’s what makes the Washington-Fitzpatrick marriage so enticing. Let Fitzpatrick make his mistakes and let a top-5 defense bail you out from time to time. In return, you get a quarterback who can make plays down the field. He’ll take the risks that former quarterback, Kirk Cousins, wouldn’t take. Washington’s offense could be explosive with a solid wide receiving led by Terry McLaurin.
So lets quit all of the competition talk because I want to see Ryan Fitzpatrick be Ryan Fitzpatrick… for better or for worse.
