Rivera Reveals The 1 Thing WFT Needs From Fitz at Patriots

If Fitzpatrick, at 38 and with all these NFL years under his belt, doesn't know how to "go through the checks'' ... the WFT has a big problem.

It really comes down to one word.

"Command.''

Once we get out of the way the Washington Football Team risk/reward decision to play some starters in Thursday's NFL preseason opener at the New England Patriots - and there is a worthy debate there, especially as it relates to exposing the new 38-year-old QB Ryan Fitzpatrick - we get to what head coach Ron Rivera really needs to see from Fitz.

And then maybe we better understand the reasoning behind playing him at all.

“Is he going through the checks, the processes he needs to?” Rivera said Tuesday, per Sam Fortier of The Washington Post by way of explaining what he wants to see from Fitzpatrick. “When I’m done, I’m going to take a look and see what the playbook tells us ...''

At the risk of overanalyzing the issue:If Fitzpatrick, at 38 and with all these NFL years under his belt, doesn't know how to "go through the checks'' ... the WFT has a big problem.

But "command''? Sure. We get that.

This will be Fitzpatrick and Rivera’s first game together. Is it substantially different than all the time they've spent together this spring and summer on the practice field and in the classroom? The head coach obviously thinks so.

So he'll check the film after the game and gauge, as he said, "Whether or not we spread the ball around properly and we used all of our assets out there.”

Again ... We assume Fitzpatrick will be just fine in terms of his decision-making. In terms of asset management. And in terms of command. But the coach wants to see it. And honestly - maybe more driven by football hunger and curiosity than by evaluation of a QB we feel we know pretty well - so do we.

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