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Saleh and Douglas get it.
And it’s not just because I’ve written it over and over. If you understand football, it’s really just common sense.
So many people writing that the Jets need to put offensive weapons and linemen to support Zach Wilson. We touched on it yesterday a little bit.
No, you don’t approach the draft looking to boost up the offense around Wilson. No, you stick to the board and help all parts of the team.
And while doing that, you need to help out a defense that was the NFL’s worst last year.
It’s never smart to leave your value board, which you spend months preparing, after spending millions, yes, millions, on sending scouts and others all over the
country to evaluate prospects, at games, All-Star games, the combine and so forth. You rate players, regardless of position, in order of value based on your
grading system. Every team is a little different.
So it’s best to stick to that board.
However, in this draft, if two prospects are really close on their value board, when the Jets are on the clock, the tie goes to the defense, that is how much
they need help that side of the ball. They need to add two or three defensive difference-makers in this draft.
So this gets me to what Saleh and Douglas said on Wednesday when asked about helping out Wilson in the draft.
“We got a little bit better towards the end of the year, but there was a minute there where we were giving up 40 points a game,” Saleh said. “If you’re having to play a shootout, that’s a lot of pressure on a quarterback. I don’t care which quarterback you are.”
“Obviously, one avenue to help the quarterback is playmakers,” Douglas said. “It’s the weapons, it’s the wide receivers, it’s the tight ends, it’s the backs. There’s also the other ways to help it which is a good solid defense to get him the ball back as often as we can.”
The most important point here is the one Saleh made about avoiding shootouts, which can put too much pressure on young quarterbacks. He said “I don’t care
which quarterback you are,” which is true, shootouts aren’t ideal for any QB. However, their even worse for young ones.
And the Jets defense was pretty bad for most of last season. For those who might not know the lingo, “minute” to a younger generation means for a while. So
when Saleh said, “There was a minute there where we were giving up 40 points a game,” it was more than the old definition of the word.
So once again, no, the Jets don’t need to pick weapons and linemen to boost up Wilson. They need to stick to their board and pick good players regardless of the position, and the tie goes to the defense.
Because, Wilson still needs to get better on his mechanics, footwork and field vision, and while he does that, it’s best to keep the score down.
March 3, 2022
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