A look back at the 9 (!) teams Ryan Fitzpatrick played for in an unlikely 17-year NFL career

{"id":1905356,"date":"2022-06-02T14:08:14","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T18:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/?post_type\u003dfishburn_gallery\u0026#038;p\u003d1905356","raw":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/?post_type\u003dfishburn_gallery\u0026#038;p\u003d1905356"},"modified":"2022-06-02T14:08:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T18:08:14","password":"","slug":"ryan-fitzpatrick-retirement-every-team-jets-bills-dolphins-buccaneers","status":"publish","type":"fishburn_gallery","link":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/gallery/ryan-fitzpatrick-retirement-every-team-jets-bills-dolphins-buccaneers","title":{"raw":"A look back at the 9 (!) teams Ryan Fitzpatrick played for in an unlikely 17-year NFL career","rendered":"A look back at the 9 (!) teams Ryan Fitzpatrick played for in an unlikely 17-year NFL career"},"content":{"raw":"Ryan Fitzpatrick is calling it a career.\r\n\r\nThe longtime veteran will \u003ca href\u003d\"https://twitter.com/Fred22Jackson/status/1532388948840009728\"\u003ereportedly hang up his cleats\u003c/a\u003e following 17 seasons in the NFL. In nearly two decades he went from seventh-round draft pick \u003ca href\u003d\"https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/06/washington-football-team-ryan-fitzpatrick-cicada-beard\"\u003eto a starting quarterback\u003c/a\u003e for a league-record nine different teams (Josh McCown, a worthy rival in the journeyman rankings, played for nine teams in his long career but only started for six of them). He made a little more than $82 million working on Sundays.\r\n\r\nFitzpatrick\u0027s legacy is that he was rarely great, but mostly \"good enough.\" He was a useful enough stopgap option and leader that teams could turn to him to guide them through rebuilds. He served as a bridge that led to revivals in Cincinnati, Tampa, and Houston, yet didn\u0027t play for a single team that qualified for the postseason in his entire 17-year career.\r\n\r\nBut Fitzpatrick did his best to turn chicken ... stuff ... into chicken salad. He had a big arm, saw the field well and was generally embraced by fans. His overall legacy will be as the Great Value version of Jay Cutler, only if people preferred the generic offering considerably over its name-brand counterpart.\r\n\r\nLet\u0027s take a look back at Fitzpatrick\u0027s journey from Harvard signal caller to NFL veteran, starting with his time as a rookie with the St. Louis Rams all the way to his finale in Washington:","rendered":"\u003cp\u003eRyan Fitzpatrick is calling it a career.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe longtime veteran will \u003ca href\u003d\"https://twitter.com/Fred22Jackson/status/1532388948840009728\"\u003ereportedly hang up his cleats\u003c/a\u003e following 17 seasons in the NFL. In nearly two decades he went from seventh-round draft pick \u003ca href\u003d\"https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/06/washington-football-team-ryan-fitzpatrick-cicada-beard\"\u003eto a starting quarterback\u003c/a\u003e for a league-record nine different teams (Josh McCown, a worthy rival in the journeyman rankings, played for nine teams in his long career but only started for six of them). He made a little more than $82 million working on Sundays.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFitzpatrick\u0026#8217;s legacy is that he was rarely great, but mostly \u0026#8220;good enough.\u0026#8221; He was a useful enough stopgap option and leader that teams could turn to him to guide them through rebuilds. He served as a bridge that led to revivals in Cincinnati, Tampa, and Houston, yet didn\u0026#8217;t play for a single team that qualified for the postseason in his entire 17-year career.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut Fitzpatrick did his best to turn chicken \u0026#8230; stuff \u0026#8230; into chicken salad. He had a big arm, saw the field well and was generally embraced by fans. His overall legacy will be as the Great Value version of Jay Cutler, only if people preferred the generic offering considerably over its name-brand counterpart.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet\u0026#8217;s take a look back at Fitzpatrick\u0026#8217;s journey from Harvard signal caller to NFL veteran, starting with his time as a rookie with the St. Louis Rams all the way to his finale in Washington:\u003c/p\u003e\n","protected":false,"block_version":0},"excerpt":{"raw":"From seventh-round pick to 17-year NFL veteran.","rendered":"\u003cp\u003eFrom seventh-round pick to 17-year NFL veteran. \u003c/p\u003e\n","protected":false},"author":191719916,"featured_media":812610,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":"","_external_permalink":"","usat_canonical_link":"","usat_coauthor":"","_format_video_embed":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2019/03/ap-eagles-buccaneers-football.jpg","_lawrence_general_short_headline":"","_lawrence_general_bridge_headline":"","_lawrence_hide_on_homepage":"0","capi_sync_syndication_toggle":"0","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-06-02T18:08:34Z","apple_news_api_id":"8cfe82a1-ea85-4bc7-9f95-a96865b109d5","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-06-02T18:08:34Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD//////////w\u003d\u003d","apple_news_api_share_url":"https://apple.news/AjP6CoeqFS8eflaloZbEJ1Q","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"[\"https:\\/\\/news-api.apple.com\\/sections\\/63598e35-bbc9-38d2-bb58-320304a77215\"]","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[{"id":1371,"count":23591,"description":"","link":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/category/nfl","name":"NFL","slug":"nfl","taxonomy":"category","parent":0,"meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories/1371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories"}],"about":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/taxonomies/category"}],"wp:post_type":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts?categories\u003d1371"},{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/imported?categories\u003d1371"},{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery?categories\u003d1371"},{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/listicle?categories\u003d1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https://api.w.org/{rel}","templated":true}]}}],"tags":[421393250,1028948],"permalink_template":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/gallery/%pagename%","generated_slug":"a-look-back-at-the-9-teams-ryan-fitzpatrick-played-for-in-an-unlikely-17-year-nfl-career","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"images":[{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_2092120.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports","date":"","id":1905322,"title":"2005-2007: St. Louis Rams"},{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_3576996.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports","date":"","id":1905324,"title":"2007-2008: Cincinnati Bengals"},{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_5593588.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports","date":"","id":1905325,"title":"2009-2012: Buffalo Bills"},{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_7387421.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports","date":"","id":1905326,"title":"2013: Tennessee Titans"},{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_8024160.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports","date":"","id":1905327,"title":"2014: Houston Texans"},{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_9535517.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports","date":"","id":1905328,"title":"2015-2016: New York Jets"},{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_11694090.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com","date":"","id":1905329,"title":"2017-2018: Tampa Bay Buccaneers"},{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_15376356.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports","date":"","id":1905331,"title":"2019-2020: Miami Dolphins"},{"src":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2022/06/USATSI_16597197.jpg?w\u003d1000","caption":"","author":"Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports","date":"","id":1905332,"title":"2021: Washington Football Team"}],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery"}],"about":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/fishburn_gallery"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/191719916"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post\u003d1905356"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1905381,"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356/revisions/1905381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/812610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent\u003d1905356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post\u003d1905356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post\u003d1905356"}],"wp:action-publish":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356"}],"wp:action-unfiltered-html":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356"}],"wp:action-assign-author":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356"}],"wp:action-create-categories":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356"}],"wp:action-assign-categories":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356"}],"wp:action-create-tags":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356"}],"wp:action-assign-tags":[{"href":"https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-json/wp/v2/fishburn_gallery/1905356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https://api.w.org/{rel}","templated":true}]},"attachments":[]}