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He has a lot of work to do.
And he knows it and he’s willing to do it.
But he’s got to ignore the press clippings and the white noise of social media at all costs.
Talking about Zach Wilson.
He can’t pay any attention to people, who aren’t his coaches, saying how good he’s looked in a practice. They don’t even know what he’s be asked to to do on many play.
Ignore people writing it was his “best practice” who aren’t coaches.
Honestly, these spring practices probably shouldn’t be open to the media because it leads to outsiders talking about how good or bad a player looks, in touch football. And also this time of year is a class room. Do you want people evaluating you how look early on in algebra class?
Doing QB stats at OTA practices is troubling.
This time of year isn’t about style points, it’s about teaching and learning.
If you want to hang your hat on a writer telling you how great a rookie QB looks in an OTA practice, that is up to you, but it’s fool’s gold.
The only thing I can tell you about Wilson at this point, staying in my wheelhouse, is that he has a heck of an arm, is pretty accurate and the ball comes out of his hands like a rocket launcher.
Wilson needs to ignore the spring plaudits at all costs, and to stay in the moment, focusing on the next snap, the next meeting, “process thinking” as Nick Saban calls it.
As Robert Saleh said recently, this time of year is about “teaching your techniques and fundamentals and scheme.”
And when it comes to evaluations of his practices, Wilson should just listen to people like Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur, passing game coordinator Gregg Knapp (who has been coaching QBs for about a quarter century), QB coach Rob Calabrese and of course, Saleh.
Ignore the people who don’t even know the play call, the progressions or the play book.
Just pay attention to your coaches, and that is it.
This time of year isn’t about media reviews of your performance.
“Let’s have good meetings, let’s have a clean locker, let’s have a good clean practice and let’s grow from there,” Saleh recently said after a spring practice.
And if you are into evaluating quarterbacks in flag football and 7-on-7 drills with no line, keep in mind, that Wilson is facing a pass defense that isn’t top-shelf right now. I mentioned this yesterday.
If you want to send our viral tweets about it being his best practice, maybe you should consider he’s facing a secondary, with a rookie fifth-round pick project at corner, Jason Pinnock (for the injured Bless Austin), with safeties Marcus Maye and Ashtyn Davis missing, a rookie slot corner and so forth. There were a lot of receivers wide open on Tuesday.
But honestly, no matter who he’s facing, he shouldn’t be evaluated by outsiders who don’t know what he’s be asked to do.
Especially this time of year, which is about installing, teaching and learning.
Don’t get the wrong idea about this post. It’s not a negative post about Zach Wilson, who I think is a heck of prospect with a huge upside.
This about Wilson just listening to the people who matter – his coaches.
Not Twitter hyperbole aimed about tweets going viral.
June 9, 2021
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