Why neither the Dolphins nor Fitzpatrick have publicly committed to each other for 2020

Ryan Fitzpatrick is leaning toward wanting to return to the Miami Dolphins beyond this season but has not said so because there are multiple scenarios that must be considered when the season is over — not the least of which is whether the Dolphins want him back.

The Dolphins, on the other hand, love Fitzpatrick but also have resisted saying definitively he’ll be back in 2020 because like the player, they must weigh multiple scenarios before making a decision.

So here we are, days before the end of the 2019 regular season, with the Dolphins having a solid veteran quarterback on the roster who is signed through 2020 ... and neither the player nor the team has been willing to commit to each other for next season.

All this despite the fact Dolphins head coach Brian Flores and Fitzpatrick enjoy each other and respect each other and both would ordinarily want to continue the relationship.

But in a roller-coaster season where up has sometimes been down and winning has sometimes been considered losing, this is yet another strange situation that must be both talked and walked through by the parties before it gets resolved.

So how how did we get here?

Firstly, consider that Fitzpatrick was never expected to be the Dolphins quarterback in 2019. General manager Chris Grier said he gave Flores and his assistants the option of keeping former starter Ryan Tannehill.

And it wasn’t supposedly until after Flores and the staff decided Tannehill needed to go that the Dolphins traded the quarterback and started searching for a bridge quarterback.

That guy wasn’t Fitzpatrick at first.

The Dolphins tried to sign Teddy Bridgewater and also reportedly tried to lure Tyrod Taylor to be the team’s starter. And both opted to be backups in New Orleans and with the Los Angeles Chargers respectively rather than play for what they expected would be a terrible Miami team at a relative bargain.

Fitzpatrick was the next option. And given the chance to play, he took it, bargain or not. He signed a two-year deal for $11 million that has the potential to grow significantly next year because he’s met playtime and other bonus incentives.

Fitzpatrick could cost the Dolphins $9.5 million in 2020 with $4 million of that being guaranteed, assuming he doesn’t dip below 75 percent in play time for the season. He’s currently at 80 percent and is expected to start Sunday at the New England Patriots.

So that’s good work if you can get it for next year.

But it’s not quite that simple, per sources.

The truth is if you’d asked Fitzpatrick about coming back in 2020 back in September, after he’d lost his starting job following the first two games of the season, if he was being transparent he probably would have said no way.

At that time, Fitzpatrick was not happy because he thought he didn’t have a fair shot to perform at his best because the Dolphins basically cobbled together a lineup days before the regular-season opener. Fitzpatrick also didn’t see himself as the second-best quarterback on the roster, but there he was, sitting behind new starter Josh Rosen.

So the vet was not thrilled. And living in South Florida while his wife kept the family home in Tampa, Fitzpatrick was even advised to retire at the time by people close to him.

Fitzpatrick obviously resisted that advice and within a month things completely changed.

That’s because Flores, wanting to compete and convince his players he personally wasn’t part of the Dolphins greater 2019 tank plan, returned Fitzpatrick to the starting lineup Oct. 20 at Buffalo.

There were two reasons Flores did this: One, Fitzpatrick was still Miami’s best quarterback and everyone with eyes both inside and outside the organization knew it. And, secondly, the coach decided it would be wiser to resist the pressure to play Rosen, mostly from outside the organization, than to have to answer to the locker room and others within the organization who expected the best player to be on the field.

And, again, everyone knew then and continues to believe Fitzpatrick is the better player.

“I think it’s easy for people to sit and say ‘you should do this or that, or this or that.’ I don’t think those same people will stand in front of that group and say ‘this is in the best interest of the team, for us to win this week,’ “ Flores admitted last week.

“That’s no knock on Josh. Maybe you think that’s in the best interest, but you’re not in front of this team every day. You’re not in the trenches and a lot of people aren’t. Those are decisions I have to make, and we as a coaching staff, we go through this diligently and we come out of it with that decision, and we feel like that’s the best thing to do.”

You know what this did for Ryan Fitzpatrick?

It raised his level of respect for the coach to great heights.

(It raised the respect other players had for Flores, too).

“I think — and I think one of the things you pointed to is me being out there — I just think that decision is made knowing that we’re trying to win football games,” Fitzpatrick said last month. “Not to say that the other guy isn’t as good or whatever it is.

“But if you look at a really old crusty guy, and a young guy that everyone wants to see; for me to be out there, that means we’re trying to win football games and that definitely resonates throughout the team.”

It definitely resonated with Fitzpatrick who has grown into quite a Flores fan. And vice versa.

Asked this week if there’s anything Fitzpatrick has done that would preclude him from returning to the team next year, Flores answered, “No.”

But, again, nowhere in the line of questioning about Fitz, a player the coach really likes, was a definitive desire expressed to bring him back. And that kind of answer has been mutual from Fitzpatrick, who has been asked the past couple of weeks if he’d like to return and has put the question off for future consideration.

Even though, sources say, he’d love to return under the right circumstances.

So why can’t we get to a simple answer in the saga?

This is where it gets complicated: The Dolphins will be doing work the coming offseason to add a quarterback. Have you heard? No amount of hemming and hawing by anyone in the organization is going to change that.

Owner Stephen Ross told The Herald a couple of weeks ago his team needs a quarterback.

And, by golly, pity the people who don’t get a quarterback.

That QB, by the way, is not named Ryan Fitzpatrick.

So we have a delicate balance that must be struck because the Dolphins currently cannot offer Fitzpatrick a starting job for 2020. Fact is, they can’t really offer Fitzpatrick anything because they have no clue what names will be on the QB market and then in the draft they might be interested in.

So the team can basically hang loose with the idea Fitzpatrick is under contract. The team can decide Fitzpatrick’s fate after the new quarterback opportunities are considered.

Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, can’t simply walk. He’s under contract. So his decision is whether to come back to Miami or retire or wait for the Dolphins to keep him or cut him.

Outside of quitting, an idea he has not embraced, Fitzpatrick has to wait and see.

One more thing: This would be way easier if Fitzpatrick was amenable to simply playig the role of the doting old veteran QB content not playing.

That is not Fitzpatrick.

The dude loves to play. And if he’s on a team, he competes to get on the field. That’s how it was with the New York Jets when they had Geno Smith and Christian Hackenberg.

Fitzpatrick didn’t grab those guys by the hand and bring them along. He competed with them to try to beat them out. And he really tried to bury Hackenberg, which he easily did.

When he went to Tampa Bay, Fitzpatrick was aware Jameis Winston was the franchise’s stated future (however that’s working out). But he competed so hard he actually started 10 games in two seasons. And this after Winston was the No. 1 overall selection.

So this could be a delicate issue.

The point is too many things remain unsettled. So even if coaches would be fine bringing Fitzpatrick back (they are) and Fitzpatrick would like to keep playing for Miami (he’s leaning that way) no one has made a definitive proclamation about what’s about to happen.