Ryan Fitzpatrick is not ready to walk away from the Jets just yet.
“I would like to be back,” the free-agent quarterback told two reporters at Willie Colon’s charity golf outing benefiting the Alliance for Lupus Research on Monday.
Fitzpatrick was in good spirits as he joined some of his teammates from the Jets last season to play with Colon. In his first comments since the contract standoff with the Jets began, Fitzpatrick declined to get in-depth about the negotiations, saying he wants to keep a low profile. He did, however, shoot down a report from last month that said he would consider retirement.
“I’m playing,” he said defiantly. “I’m playing football next year.”
The Jets open OTAs on Tuesday with Geno Smith as the first-team quarterback. Despite Fitzpatrick’s record-setting season in 2015, the two sides have not been able to reach a deal. Fitzpatrick wants to be paid in line with other veteran starting quarterbacks – in the neighborhood of $15 million per season. The Jets see his value as much lower because he is 33 years old and is a journeyman quarterback who has been unable to string together a number of good seasons. The Jets’ initial offer was around $7 million, but they have increased that offer. It is unknown exactly how much they are offering now.
The Jets and Fitzpatrick have been playing this game of chicken since early March with neither side blinking. Some thought Fitzpatrick might be back before the Jets began OTAs, but that is not happening. Now, all eyes will turn to the start of training camp at the end of July as the next significant potential deadline. Both coach Todd Bowles and owner Woody Johnson have indicated training camp is when the team believes they need Fitzpatrick back if he is going to return.
Fitzpatrick was not getting into any deadlines on Monday. In an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, he declined to put a percentage on the chances he is back with the Jets in 2016.
The quarterback market exploded this offseason with the Texans handing Brock Osweiler a contract worth $18 million per year and the Eagles giving Sam Bradford one that averages $17.5 million per year. But Fitzpatrick said he is not looking at what other quarterbacks are making.
“I think earlier in my career, I think that’s something you fall into as a player,” he said on SiriusXM. “Right now, no. I understand the market and I understand those guys. I’m happy for them, what they got.
“I know my value to a team is my value to a particular team. You’d drive yourself crazy if you look at other guys and say, ‘Why not me? Why not me?’ ”
Fitzpatrick acknowledged that 2015 may have been his best season as a pro. He clicked with offensive coordinator Chan Gailey and wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker.
“I want to play,” Fitzpatrick said. “I love playing the game of football. I had a great time, probably [had] my best season last year in terms of how much fun I had out there with the guys, you know, out there every Sunday. It’s something I still really enjoy doing and something I want to continue to do.”
Colon, who is also a free agent after three years with the Jets, said Fitzpatrick won over the locker room last year.
“You’re talking about someone who’s invested,” Colon said at his event at Hudson National Golf Club in Croton-on-Hudson. “He’s not just playing quarterback, he’s living it, he’s waking up to it, he’s eating it. If the Jets don’t understand that we haven’t had that in a long time, then we need to kind of re-evaluate what we’re doing here. He’s everything.”