While many Washington fans are perturbed that Ryan Fitzpatrick and the starting offense hasn't scored a touchdown yet in the preseason, the quarterback himself found himself more irritated by something else recently: his unkempt hair.
So, on Monday, Fitzpatrick showed up to training camp practice with a fresh cut, and on Tuesday, he addressed what went into his trip to the barber.
"It was time," Fitzpatrick told reporters in a press conference. "That was about as long as it's been. It was getting a little bit annoying under the helmet."
As for his mood when responding to questions about his unit's early slump — the six drives he's engineered through two exhibition games have resulted in a total of three points — Fitzpatrick seemed totally unbothered.
Would he prefer to have already visited the end zone a time or two with the likes of Antonio Gibson, Terry McLaurin and Logan Thomas? No doubt. But is he lamenting the fact that an August breakthrough hasn't occurred? Not exactly.
"I don’t really put much stock into it," Fitzpatrick said. "When we get into the season, we’re going to rely more on certain playmakers, we’re going to have certain schemes. There’s just different things we’ll do. It’d be nice to be able to do some of that stuff in the preseason but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal right now."
In the Burgundy and Gold's latest matchup versus the Bengals, Fitzpatrick nearly exceeded 100 yards in a quarter of action, but he wasn't very sharp in key situations.
He didn't hit Thomas on an easy out route on a third down attempt to keep a possession going, and he missed both Thomas and Adam Humphries for would-be scores later in the evening.
In Fitzpatrick's mind, though, those mistakes don't warrant any type of panic. He was looking in the right places, he picked out the correct targets and, unfortunately, he just didn't top it all off with a completion in those instances.
"I’ve missed plenty of throws in my career, I’m sure that’s not going to be the last one," Fitzpatrick said. "You like to find out the why. Was it a bad throw, was it technique, was he not in the place I thought he was going to be? You go from there and you just work it out."
If this trend of inaccuracy continues through September and if No. 14 is holding back the offense from producing more points in 2021 meetings that actually matter, then sure, that'll be time for serious criticism.
However, for a signal caller who's about to embark on his 17th season in the NFL, a couple of touchdown-less outings in games where there's hardly any preparation and less opportunity than a normal Sunday to settle into a groove simply aren't worth stressing over.
"File it away," Fitzpatrick said. "And you move on."