BY DAN BEGNOCHE
After watching his entire coaching staff disappear on New Year’s Eve, Fitzpatrick may be wondering if his starting job is next. (photo: Doug Kerr, Flickr)
“The new coach will make a lot of that determination by looking (at) tape and that kind of thing and we’ll let him be in, obviously, on the decision,” general manager Buddy Nix told the media Tuesday. “I’ve said we are going to try to draft a quarterback and we are. We may even get one in free agency, but we are going to draft a young quarterback at some point.”
The team’s final record landed it the eighth overall pick in the 2013 draft. Unfortunately, this quarterback class is relatively weak, especially, and maybe unfairly, when you compare it to 2012.
Both backups Tyler Thigpen and Tavaris Jackson are currently unrestricted free agents, which makes seeing them off and keeping Fitzpatrick around for either the No. 1 or No. 2 quarterback spot a feasible move.
New coaches tend to lean toward picking their own franchise quarterback, however, and having Fitzpatrick around could be counter-productive, unless it’s for only a year or so in a teaching role. For now though, Fitzpatrick will have to get used to uncertainty.
“If (Fitzpatrick) will be here it will be up to the new coach and us,” Nix said. “We will decide as we evaluate at the end of the year here. I am not going to predict that.”
