Ryan Fitzpatrick has far more experience than any other quarterback on the Washington Football Team and he’s making more money than the other three players at the position combined, but head coach Ron Rivera isn’t crowning him as the starter for Week 1 at the moment.
After anointing Dwayne Haskins as the starter heading into last season and getting disappointing results, Rivera has pushed competition as the best route for the team to take this time around. Taylor Heinicke and Kyle Allen both started games last season and Steven Montez is also on the roster.
On Thursday, Rivera said that having a competition “would have given us a better idea as to what we had to focus on” and that he wants to go through that process despite Fitzpatrick’s presence.
“It’s going to be a good competition,” Rivera said, via John Keim of ESPN.com. “I look forward to it. It’s going to push our football team and make our football team better. I just feel that going into this knowing we have a proven guy there that has the ability to lead us, but again, we have a guy in Taylor that shows us he can do it. They are going to compete, they are going to push, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Fitzpatrick will get the first crack at the job and the evidence that someone else is better suited to it will have to be overwhelming for him not to be on the field against the Chargers in September, but it’s a possibility as long as Rivera is open to being overwhelmed.
Ron Rivera: QB competition will make team better originally appeared on Pro Football Talk