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If you really sit back and think about this for a minute,
it really doesn’t make sense.
Talking about Zach Wilson entering the season as the Jets’ #2 QB.
At the NFL’s annual meeting last week, Jets coach Robert Saleh was asked if Zach Wilson is his #2 QB.
“As of now, for sure,” Saleh said. “And again, like I said, we’re really excited to work with him. I want to make sure I rephrase that. When I said “as of now,” I know that’s going to be the headline, but he’s our number two. I really still think Zach has a future in this League to be a really good quarterback. I really do. He has the work ethic. He has the mindset, and he’s coming in here to attack it, but yeah, we’re counting on him to be a fixture here for a while.”
Look, what I’m about to say isn’t a criticism of what Saleh said here. What else could he say? Wilson will be the #3? He’s not going to say that, especially right now.
But Wilson should be the #3 entering the season. If you really want to fix a quarterback’s broken mechanics and footwork, do you really think that is going to be done by September?
If they want to do this right, he needs to be red-shirted this year, to give him ample time to fix what is broken. It takes a lot of time to reverse entrenched muscle memory issues. Wilson has been throwing a certain way for a long time, and getting away with it on lower levels of competition, but that stuff isn’t going to fly on the NFL level.
Just go back to the game in New England:
Wilson sailed a simple bubble screen over the head of Braxton Berrios. It was one of those plays, that made it abundantly clear, there was a significant issue with the quarterback’s mechanics.
Long-time New England Patriots radio analyst Scott Zolak, a former NFL QB, who had a stint with the Jets, made some pointed comments after this play:
“Set your feet and stop throwing sidearm,” Zolak said. “Talk about streetball. Settle this guy down!”
Zolak also pointed out throughout the broadcast, that Wilson throws off his backfoot too often and feels that is why he sailed another bubble screen, later in the third quarter, over the head of Denzel Mims.
“Backfoot – [throwing] backward from his hip, and he sails it,” Zolak said.
If you are going to make him the primary backup entering the season, and he has to play, do you really think these things will be fixed by then?
There is a lot of heavy lifting involved in fixing this stuff, folks.
Last year he was benched to fix some stuff, and then came back later in the season, and nothing changed.
Make him the #3 with the intention of really, truly trying to fix his mechanics and footwork, and not playing him before you feel this is done.
Go get a veteran backup and maybe even draft another QB.
Don’t make him #2 just to appease the media, or for PR reasons.
Do what is right for the kid. Give him a year to fix his fundies which could take some time.
If the starting QB has to miss any time early in the year, have somebody else ready to play. Maybe that is Tim Boyle, a former Packer and Lion they signed today.
Fundies weren’t built in a day.
April 6, 2023
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