Ryan Fitzpatrick trolls Aqib Talib after criticism over Bo Nix rant

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Ryan Fitzpatrick dropped the gloves when analyzing Bo Nix’s performance after Thursday Night Football this week.

Despite Nix and the Denver Broncos sneaking past the Seattle Seahawks 17-14, Fitzpatrick teed off on Nix’s play during Prime Video’s postgame show, calling the performance “almost disrespectful to the quarterback position.”

While that phrasing might’ve been a little harsh, few would disagree with Fitzpatrick’s analysis. Nix finished the game 17-27 for just 107 passing yards. And in critical moments, he came up short.

“In overtime, he’s got two chances to be competitive,” Fitzpatrick said. “The last one being a designed run for him to run, make somebody miss, and get a first down for your football team,” which Nix failed to do.

Anyone with eyes tended to agree with Fitzpatrick on Thursday, and the former NFL quarterback received a lot of plaudits for coming out so strongly against Nix’s performance despite the Broncos winning. But former Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib was not on the list of people praising Fitzpatrick. In fact, Talib took it upon himself to discredit Fitzpatrick by pointing to Fitzpatrick’s own NFL career, which spanned nine different franchises over 17 years.

On his podcast, Talib called Fitzpatrick “disrespectful” to the quarterback position based on his journeyman status, lack of postseason success, and high interception rate.

Fitzpatrick took to social media on Sunday morning to respond. And he did so in the most Ryan Fitzpatrick way possible: killing Talib with kindness. Watch for yourself below.

Just got off the phone with Aqib Talib…happy we were able to work thru our differences https://t.co/0gQt0n5BFs

Fitzpatrick is self-aware enough to know he didn’t have some Hall of Fame-level NFL career. He didn’t need Talib to tell him that. But just like someone who has never taken an NFL snap can analyze football at a high level, Fitzpatrick is more than qualified to give his opinion on Nix’s play, no matter what his own playing career looked like.

Luckily, Fitzpatrick has a keen ability to be self-deprecating and not take Talib’s criticisms personally. In doing so, he avoided the all-out media beef that some other analysts likely would’ve gotten into if criticized in that way.