Ryan Fitzpatrick hasn't been a Texan for long.
He hasn't met most of his teammates.
A playbook hasn't thoroughly been digested.
But based on a brief meeting with head coach Bill O'Brien and quarterbacks coach George Godsey, he's already enthused about the Texans' offense.
"We got into some of the X's and O's a little bit, just talking about the basics of the system and what they ask of their quarterback and all that stuff," Fitzpatrick said in a 1-on-1 interview on Friday. "For me, it was a very exciting thing to see the demands that they put on a quarterback and all the different ways that they attack defenses and their scheme and what they're trying to do."
Fitzpatrick has a career quarterback rating of 77.5, tossing 106 touchdowns and 93 interceptions. He entered the League as a 7th round pick of the Rams in 2005. O'Brien will the ninth head coach (including a pair of interims) Fitzpatrick's played for, and the veteran signal-caller likes what he saw from the Texans new boss.
"I walked away so impressed by his knowledge and passion of the game," Fitzpatrick said. "That's the thing that got me most excited."
Fitzpatrick will enter his 10th NFL season this autumn, and Houston's the fifth city he'll call his professional home. In that span, he's learned an offense or two.
"If there's one thing that I'm good at, it's picking up a new system," Fitzpatrick said. "But I'm looking forward to that: the challenge of learning it."
Case Keenum and T.J. Yates are with Fitzpatrick on the depth chart, and with a strong chance of the Texans drafting a quarterback this May, the veteran acknowledged that he might be called upon to teach a bit. While he acknowledged that he'll have fully understand the offense himself, before he's able to capably help others learn it, Fitzpatrick said he embraces the game-planning aspect of the quarterback position.
"I'm really excited about fully jumping into this stuff and really learning it together as an offensive unit and going from there," Fitzpatrick said. "I really enjoy the x's and o's part of the game, and all the preparation that goes into a game."
According to Fitzpatrick, the quarterback in O'Brien's system must be able to "process information quickly", and the Harvard grad will be called upon to do that, whether he's a starter this season or a backup. Offseason workouts begin on April 7, and OTA's will start in the middle of May.
