Ryan Fitzpatrick Could Become NFL’s Ultimate Wild Card for the 2016 Season

The NFL is a weird little world—one in which last year’s 25th-rated passer, Brock Osweiler, was in such high demand that he signed a four-year, $72 million on the first day of free agency, while last year’s 24th-rated passer, Ryan Fitzpatrick, remains unsigned 78 days later. 

The major difference between those two quarterbacks is that Osweiler is 25 years old, while Fitzpatrick is 33. One is being paid for his potential (Osweiler has just seven career starts under his belt) while the other has yet to be paid despite being a known commodity (Fitzpatrick has started 105 games for six different teams).

Fitzpatrick is coming off the two best seasons of his NFL career. He threw a New York Jets franchise-record 31 touchdown passes while helping Gang Green win 10 games in 2015. He was the league’s ninth-rated passer with the Houston Texans in 2014. He’s a smart, experienced Harvard grad, and he’s made it clear he plans on playing in 2016. 

“I’m playing,” he said at a charity golf event Monday, per ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini. “I’m playing football next year.”

The question is where?

The Jets make a lot of sense, but, as Cimini points out, the two sides have been engaged in a standoff for much of the offseason. Understandably so, because Osweiler and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford (who signed a two-year, $35 million deal in March) have turned the quarterback market into a funhouse.

It’s hard to blame Fitzpatrick—who has made nearly $40 million in his career and is extremely employable off the field—for wanting something within the Osweiler-Bradford range, and Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole reported in March that the Jets weren’t even offering $10 million a year. Too boot, New York has since added second-round pick Christian Hackenberg to a quarterback stable that already included young pivots Geno Smith and Bryce Petty. 

The league’s quarterback supply-and-demand …

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