PITTSFORD - Ryan Fitzpatrick said Thursday he has every intention of proving once and for all that he is the man to lead the Buffalo Bills back to football success.
"I've got a ton of belief in myself," Fitzpatrick said. "The self-confidence is something that's huge at the quarterback position. I'm ready to go out there and play. I've proved it. I've showed it. I've played well in stretches. But I think consistency is the big thing, and I know I can do it."
Fitzpatrick was back in charge of the offense and looked sharp during the first practice of training camp at St. John Fisher College in suburban Rochester.
Skepticism about the Bills' odds of taking a big jump from a 6-10 record centers largely around Fitzpatrick, due to his struggles the second half of last season. Fitzpatrick welcomes the pressure to prove himself.
"I love it," Fitzpatrick said. "If I didn't love it, I don't think I would play the position of quarterback. That's why we do it. I want all the pressure to fall on me so that the other guys can just go out there and play. Me being one of the older guys in the huddle, especially with our skill players, I love taking the pressure, because it takes it off them, and they're just able to go out there and play. My shoulders are big enough for that."
The challenge for the 29-year-old Fitzpatrick this summer is to refine some of his passing mechanics. Gailey hired respected QB coach David Lee to help him with it. Too many throws off his back foot and inaccuracy on some deep throws were problems last season.
Former NFL star and current ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski cited those issues recently in rating Fitzpatrick the No. 24 QB in the league.
"There's no question Fitzpatrick can play at a high level, at times, but here's the dose of reality," Jaworski said. "As I've studied him, I've really struggled with his inconsistent mechanics. The result: accuracy issues, too many missed opportunities. The ball was badly underthrown. There was a reason for that."
Fitzpatrick says he's working hard with Lee.
"It's a big thing for me," he said. "It's something that fell off last year as the season went on. We'll be working a lot of drills. When the special teams stuff is going on, we'll be doing a lot of drill work, a lot of things that are really tailored to me for things that I need to improve at. That'll be big.
"I think I've improved," Fitzpatrick said. "Knowing there is some sort of process and procedure that I need to follow when I'm throwing, that's helpful. That being said, we'll see when we get into the preseason games and especially the regular season games. That's going to be the big test - to be able, when the bullets are flying, to do it, to be able to stick to the fundamentals I've worked on all offseason. ... That's going to help me a lot with my consistency."
Deep throws to the left, in specific, were a bit of an issue last season for the QB.
So it was a welcome sight on just the second play from scrimmage Thursday to see Fitzpatrick hit receiver Stevie Johnson deep down the left sideline with a perfect strike. Johnson beat rookie Stephon Gilmore by a step. Fitzpatrick, in fact, was on target throughout the two-hour workout, clicking repeatedly with Johnson on hitches and intermediate sideline routes and with David Nelson in the middle of the field.
"I notice more in his footwork," Nelson said. "The way he gets back faster, the way he has more velocity on the ball because he has his feet underneath him. Small things like that. The ball's getting there faster. I don't know if that has anything with his arm strength, I think it just has to do with his footwork."
Lee stresses that it's going to take time for Fitzpatrick to make all the mechanical tweaks second nature.
All that said, Fitzpatrick provided plenty of reason for optimism last season.
He ranked sixth among all NFL quarterbacks in completions, ninth in completion percentage, 11th in passing yards and 10th in touchdown passes. His yardage total of 3,832 was third best in Bills history.
Over the first seven games, he completed 67.6 percent of his passes for 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and his passer rating was 97.8.
Fitzpatrick actually had a quality 20-game stretch as the Bills' starter, counting those seven games and the 13 he started in 2010. Over that stretch, he had 37 TD passes and 22 interceptions, and threw for 237 yards a game.
The downside was over the final nine games of last season, as the Bills started losing offensive players right and left, Fitzpatrick completed 58.2 percent of his passes and had 10 TDs and 16 INTs.
"A lot of things that happened toward the end of the year last year weren't really his fault," Nelson said. "But he put it on himself. He didn't come out and say what was wrong with him."
Nelson was referring to a rib injury that occurred in the seventh game, which hindered Fitzpatrick for at least several weeks, even though he never missed a practice.
"He kinda just took it in stride," Nelson said. "You want a guy who's comfortable under pressure leading the ship. It's not all on him and I think he knows that. But at the same time, in his mind he puts it on himself. As a receiver you want that in your quarterback."
"I've got a lot of belief in myself," Fitzpatrick said. "If I didn't believe in myself I probably would have quit playing football after I was done with Harvard."
