TAMPA - Don't tell Ryan Fitzpatrick the final NFL preseason game isn't important. It's how he earned entry into the league.
This year, for the first time, training camp rosters remain at 90 players rather than cut to 75 after the third game. There are many implications to that decision. The biggest: More exposure for players needing to prove they belong.
"It gives a lot of these guys a chance, and not just for one or two years but for a lot of years," said Fitzpatrick, who made the 2005 St. Louis Rams as a seventh-round pick out of Harvard.