Before he fielded an array of questions on Wednesday afternoon — about 24 hours after he found out he was being benched for rookie Tua Tagovailoa — Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, sitting inside the “Zoom conference room” from inside the team’s facility in Davie, glanced toward the monitor and took a deep breath, as if he was mulling what to say.
After guiding the Dolphins to a 3-3 record, just one game behind the first-place Buffalo Bills in the AFC East, the team’s decision Tuesday was clearly beyond the 16-year NFL veteran. When the Dolphins selected Tagovailoa with the fifth overall draft pick in April, Fitzpaticrk acknowledged he’d embrace the mentor role to the rookie quarterback and serve as a placeholder and bridge starter until Tagovailoa was ready.
Fitzpatrick sat humbly and spoke candidly for 10 minutes, revealing his feelings and raw emotions about the franchise’s somewhat surprising decision to name…
