After pawning Matt Schaub’s fat contract off on the Raiders and somehow getting a draft pick out of it, the Texans were left without a veteran quarterback to compete with a quarterback they presumably will draft in May’s 2014 NFL Draft. Neither Case Keenum nor TJ Yates were viable options. Enter Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick won’t set the world on fire or anything, but he has 75 starts over the last 6 seasons combined and he’s fared reasonable well, displaying himself to at least be a top-40 quarterback and a competent spot starter in the NFL, which is something the Texans didn’t previously have.

He’s completed 1479 of 2464 (60.0%) for 16013 yards (6.50 YPA), 102 touchdowns, and 85 interceptions during that time period. Now after signing Fitzpatrick, the Texans won’t have to force a rookie quarterback into action before he’s ready, which is critical, and the price is very reasonable. Fitzpatrick’s contract is worth 7.5 million over 2 years (with just the first year’s salary of 4 million guaranteed), which looks good when compared to deals received by Josh McCown (2 years, 10 million), Matt Moore (2 years, 8 million), Matt Cassel (2 years, 10 million), Michael Vick (1 year, 5 million) and Chad Henne (2 years, 8 million) over the past 2 off-seasons. Fitzpatrick is probably in the high end of that group of quarterbacks and he’s making less yearly than all of them. This is a very solid deal.

Grade: A

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