Dolphins

Dolphins Bench Josh Rosen, Starting Ryan Fitzpatrick In Week 7

October 16, 2019

Dolphins HC Brian Flores announced Wednesday that Ryan Fitzpatrick will be the team’s starting quarterback in Week 7’s game against the Bills with Josh Rosen heading to the bench.

“Kind of came to that conclusion over the last couple of days. We felt like that was the best thing for this team,” Flores said Wednesday, via ESPN.com. “[Fitzpatrick provides] the best opportunity for this team to go into a tough environment and try to pull out a win.”

“We need to be more productive on offense,” Flores added. “It’s a team game, so players respond to each other and the group. The quarterback has the ball in his hands on every snap. … Players on every team have to respond to the quarterback.”

This comes just a few days after Flores told reporters that Rosen was “still the starter” going forward, despite being benched during Sunday’s loss to the Redskins.

It’s clear that Flores wants to have his best players on the field, as opposed to giving Rosen an extended look to see if he can be their guy long-term. Either way, it’s not a great sign for Rosen’s prospects of being the team’s starter in the coming years.

Fitzpatrick, 36, is a former seventh-round pick of the Rams back in 2005. He’s played for several teams over the course of his 13-year NFL career including the Bengals, Bills, Titans, Texans and Jets before he signed on with the Buccaneers last year.

The Dolphins signed Fitzpatrick to a two-year contract worth $11 million contract this past March.

In 2019, Fitzpatrick has appeared in four games and completed 55.7 percent of his passes for 435 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.

Rosen, 22, is a former first-round pick of the Cardinals back in 2018. Arizona traded him to the Dolphins for a second-round pick during this year’s draft.

Rosen is in the second year of his four-year, $17,664,284 contract and stands to make base salaries of $570,000 and $660,000 over the next two years of the agreement. The contract includes a fifth-year option for the Cardinals to pick up in 2021.

In 2019, Rosen has appeared in five games for the Dolphins and completed 53.2 percent of his passes for 567 yards, one touchdown and five interceptions.