Pro Football Focus mentions Ryan Fitzpatrick as a ‘must sign’ for the Eagles

Will former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick become Nick Foles’ replacement for the Philadelphia Eagles?

What will the Philadelphia Eagles do at quarterback beyond Carson Wentz? Will they roll with Nate Sudfeld as the backup, and draft a late-round rookie? Or will they keep Sudfeld on board, and find another journeyman, who is just grateful to join a team for training camp? Well, according to Doug Pederson and Howie Roseman themselves, they would like to sign another veteran who will come in and compete with Nate Sudfeld for the backup job.

With Nick Foles searching for a new team where he can start, the Eagles don’t have that same security anymore in case Wentz gets hurt. Granted, Wentz should be entering into his first fully healthy offseason in a couple of months for the first time since 2017 so we should feel confident. But it’s never wrong to play it safe. Is Wentz injury prone or not? Many will say yes, but the jury is still out on that.

He’s only been in the league for three years, so it’s way too early to make that call. Let’s just look at Andrew Luck for reference, who missed a season and a half during his first five years in the league. He was considered injury prone but just wrapped up a top-five season in all major statistical catgeories after managing to finish out an entire year.

There’s also Nick Foles who suffered two season-ending injuries in his first three seasons with the Eagles as well. Injuries happen, and players still have time to grow and develop. However, with the fragile state that the QB position may be in, the Eagles need to ensure that they have a reliable backup. So in order to make that happen, Pro Football Focus makes a popular suggestion.

Fitzmagic to Philly?

Recently, Pro Football Focus put together an ESPN featured article, which suggested one Free Agency ‘must sign’ for every team in the league. For the Eagles, they suggested former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick. As the Eagles clearly need to figure out who they need at backup, bringing in Fitzpatrick wouldn’t be such a bad idea, considering the amount of experience that he has gained over the years.

"Fitzpatrick started the 2018 season in a magical way, earning 96-plus overall grades in each of the first two weeks. His gunslinger mentality paid off early, but his magic fizzled later in the season. However, he still did enough to earn an overall grade of 84.4, which ranked 10th out of 39 qualifying quarterbacks last season. When kept clean, Fitzpatrick completed 121 of 172 attempts for 1,824 yards, nine touchdowns, five interceptions and a passer rating of 110.2, ranking 10th in the NFL. Fitzpatrick is 36 and would merely be an insurance policy in case Carson Wentz gets injured again."

Nate Sudfeld had looked solid in the past when it came to the preseason, but that’s all he’s got. While Sudfeld is a young, cheap option, Fitzpatrick is a much more reliable insurance policy just in case Wentz happens to go down again. Similar to Nick Foles, Fitzpatrick has had his shining moments. Remember the “Fitzmagic” phenomenon early in 2018? It’s quite similar to Foles’ St. Nick magic when the Eagles needed him to relieve Wentz. Fitzmagic to Philly is not a bad idea.