Ryan Fitzpatrick: High Praise for Washington Rookies Dyami Brown & Dax Milne

Young guys make a good impression on their veteran quarterback

Rookie wide receivers Dyami Brown and Dax Milne made enough of an impression on the Washington Football Team to make the final 53-man roster. 

Specifically, their veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is very pleased thus far with what each man brings to the squad. 

"Both are very smart," Fitzpatrick told media when asked about his new pass-catchers. "Receiver, believe it or not is a very difficult position to play when you're young ..."

While he's never played wide receiver himself, he's had his fair share of young targets to work with over the years. 

In his rookie season, Fitzpatrick saw fellow 2005 draft pick Dante Ridgeway released by the team during training camp despite having led college football in receptions and receiving yards per game in 2004 for Ball State.

The following year, the Rams drafted Marques Hagans in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft. Hagans eventually stepped on the regular season field for the Rams, but it wasn't until the 2007 season when Fitzpatrick was with the Cincinnati Bengals. 

With the Bengals, Fitzpatrick saw three rookie wide receivers drafted to the team in 2008 when they drafted Jerome Simpson out of Coastal Carolina, Andre Caldwell from Florida, and Mario Urrutia from Louisville.

In his first four years as an NFL quarterback Fitzpatrick welcomed - or accompanied in the case of Ridgeway - five drafted receivers into the league. Only two ended up carving out noteworthy careers as Simpson and Caldwell both played seven years or more. 

They weren't all low-end draft picks either. Simpson was a second-round pick, and Caldwell was taken in the third. There are just technical parts of the game Fitzpatrick says, that doesn't exist in college football, and some guys have a hard time adjusting to. 

"There's just a lot of nuances that when you get to the NFL didn't really exist in college,'' the QB said. "So those two have been very sharp."

It wouldn't be hard to point out the most successful young wide receiver Fitzpatrick has played with. He was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2017 when the team selected Penn State wide receiver Chris Godwin, in the third round. 

Godwin caught 34 passes as a rookie playing behind Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson, but those receptions went for 525-yards and a game-clinching touchdown against the New Orleans Saints to end that season.

Of course, Fitzpatrick only started three games and played in five that season as Jameis Winston was entrenched as the team's starting quarterback.

Godwin's first NFL start was Fitzpatrick's first start as a member of the Buccaneers in 2017 came in mid-November. Tampa Bay had two wins compared to six losses entering the week. The quarterback and his rookie wide receiver connected five times for 68-yards and helped earn the team just their third win of the year, beating the New York Jets 15-10.

It was Godwin's first game over 50-yards and also his first with five or more catches. 

In a season of turmoil for the Buccaneers in 2018, Fitzpatrick would go on to start seven games in place of Winston who started the year with a four-game suspension. 

Tampa Bay went 2-2 in those first four games, and the passing duo had performances of 41, 56, 74, and 22 yards together, with three touchdown connections in those first four games. 

Brown isn't Godwin of course, but they do have similarities. 

To start, they're each third-round draft picks. Both were listed at 6-1 on their NFL Draft profiles with Brown's arms being slightly longer and his hands being a little bigger.

Godwin ran .02 seconds faster at the combine than Brown was clocked at during North Carolina's Pro Day. Their bench press, vertical jump, broad jump, and three-cone drill numbers are very similar as well. 

What we don't know yet is the mental processing for both WFT rookie receivers. Fitzpatrick is encouraged by what he's seen though, up to this point. 

"Obviously,'' Fitz said, "they're talented. They're both here in the NFL, but not a whole lot of mental mistakes for either of them. For Dyami in particular, just such a quiet confidence about him. And you could just tell that he's a playmaker."

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Speaking of similarities. Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorehead once told The Athletic's Robert Mays that Chris Godwin always had an "understated confidence.''

Quiet confidence and solid production go a long way to making a wide receiver their quarterback's favorite target. Ryan Fitzpatrick is seeing that happen, so far, with two kids who might just have those very traits.

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