The Jets’ long, weird, extremely Jetsian nightmare is finally over: Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick will return to New Jersey with a one-year, $12 million deal. Fitzpatrick, of course, was never meant to be the target of such affections. But here the Jets found themselves, with only Geno Smith, Bryce Petty, and 2016 draft pick Christian Hackenberg at the helm, and — oh jeez, the calls suddenly came: Fitz, please come home. The saga got stranger and stranger the longer it stretched out; on Wednesday, word came that members of the Jets had been instructed not to mention his name, and instead to defer all questions about the MIA quarterback to the team’s coaching staff. Now we’ve finally awoken to a (temporarily) four-quarterback Jets squad that has shoved last summer’s talk of historically bad records underneath the bed, and that hopes very much it will get a repeat of Fitzpatrick’s strong 2015 instead.
Without further ado, we present the Ryan Fitzpatrick deal, by the numbers.
0: NFL quarterbacks who have thrown 30 or more touchdowns in a season and not been that same team’s starting quarterback the following year
1: Quarterback who never made it to the playoffs with more NFL starts than Fitzpatrick
3: Fourth-quarter picks thrown by Fitz against the Bills in Week 17 last season
3: Unanswered texts from Brandon Marshall, prompting Marshall to say, “It’s scaring me right now”
7 (p.m.): The deadline the Jets set for Fitzpatrick on Wednesday to take the deal
7 (p.m.): The time that Fitzpatrick arrived at the Jets’ facility to take the deal
31: Passing touchdowns thrown by Fitzpatrick in 2015, a franchise record that helped bump the Jets from 27th in passing offense DVOA in 2014 to 10th last year
51: The draft pick at which the Jets selected Christian Hackenberg, who threw 28 touchdowns over his last two seasons at Penn State
3,905: Yards thrown by Fitzpatrick in 2015
$12 million: The amount Fitzpatrick allegedly demanded for a one-year deal
$12 million: The amount the Jets indicated they would not give Fitzpatrick for a one-year deal
$12 million: The amount Fitzpatrick has been promised for a one-year deal
∞: Cries of JEEEEEEETSSSSSSSSSSSS throughout the tri-state area