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One former NFL GM feels if you have “any sense of football intelligence” you can’t keep playing him.
While most of Zach Wilson’s struggles aren’t his fault, for myriad reasons like being rushed into action before he was ready, one long-time NFL executive feels the Jets have to make a change at QB right now.
“There is no way you can keep playing him, there is just no way,” said former NFL GM Mike Lombardi on VSIN. “If you have any sense of intelligence when it comes to football and you watch the tape, there is no way you can keep playing him.”
After breaking down the tape of Wilson’s performance in the Jets’ 15-10 loss to New England on Sunday, Lombardi said, “Wilson held the ball, he was unsure, he really didn’t know what to do with the football, he took sacks that he shouldn’t have taken and when he did throw the ball, he wasn’t accurate.”
And Lombardi thinks it’s hard to sell Wilson to the locker room anymore.
“It’s not a comfortable situation for anybody in that locker room.,” Lombardi said. “They can’t sell it to their locker room. [The players] know. Those guys know.”
While recently signed Trevor Siemian isn’t a star, Lombardi feels they need to get him in there ASAP.
“He gives them at least somebody who can be accurate and make a quicker decision,” Lombardi said.
Lombardi, who worked for Bill Walsh, Al Davis and Bill Belichick during a three-decade career as an NFL personnel executive. added:
“If you watch the tape of the Patriots game vs, the Jets, there is no way you can say as an objective football analyst, Joe Douglas who drafted Zach Wilson or Robert Saleh who is the head coach, you could honestly say, that kid played well. He has no awareness. He doesn’t play with any feel like I understand what I’m doing. No, He’s just like ‘everything should slow down and let me just throw the football.’ Really disappointing the way he looked at BYU and the way he plays today is really distant.”
Well at BYU, during his one standout season in 2020, he was playing the likes of Texas State, North Alabama, Troy, Navy and Coastal Carolina (who he lost to).
Because of that schedule, and because he came out of school early, he clearly shouldn’t have started as a rookie, and the Jets admitted as much last season.
Clearly, the Jets need to get Siemian in the lineup as soon as possible before their season slips away.
The Northwestern (one of America’s best schools) graduate, who was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten, should be able to pick things up quickly.
He is one of those guys, that if you surround him with a good supporting cast, and don’t ask him to carry the team, he can do a solid job for you are a point guard QB, distributing the ball to the playmakers. In two seasons as a starter in Denver, in 2016-17, he went 13-11. Not bad.
While this signing should have come sooner, it makes a lot of sense. He could be just what they need.
“[Wilson] is the one who gives us the best chance to win.” – Robert Saleh after the New England game on why he is sticking with Wilson at QB.
At this point, not many people outside the coach are on board with that theorem.
Wilson is clearly a victim here, but he obviously needs to be replaced.
September 27, 2023
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