Content available exclusively for subscribers
I personally think they are handling it well . . .
While some people are up in arms that Robert Saleh won’t announce that Zach Wilson will be the starting QB when he’s healthy, the approach Saleh is taking here makes a ton of sense. Saleh feels things will resolve themselves “organically.”
“I think it’s going to happen organically,” Saleh said on Wednesday. “If Mike does phenomenal like we think he’s going to do, that’s not weird, that’s awesome to me, in the sense that quarterback is a precious commodity in this league.”
You got that right. If you don’t have a true answer at QB, you’ve got little chance of being a successful team in the NFL.
And if White keeps doing what he’s doing, the Jets will be in a position at some point to make a blockbuster trade, for either White or Zach Wilson, that will bring them a king’s ransom in return in draft picks and perhaps players, that will help them a great deal at other positions. That probably isn’t happening anytime soon, but ‘s a possibility down the road.
Saleh isn’t giving some that answer they want right now, an assurance that Wilson will be the starter when healthy. Saleh feels this situation will work itself out.
“I think it’ll all take care of itself, we just have to let it play out,” said Saleh.
Saleh refuses to listen to the noise from outside the building when making this decision.
“[Take] a deep breath, ignore all the outside noise and make the decision that’s best for the organization moving forward,” said Saleh.
In the past, you got the sense, that the Jets would roll with first-round quarterbacks come hell or high water. Remember when Sam Darnold got hurt against Denver last year, Joe Flacco went in, and the second Darnold told them he could play, they put him back in the game, on third-down. Flacco couldn’t handle that drive himself? You had to pull Flacco on third down? It was somewhat ridiculous.
But it’s was illustrative of a mindset that the first-round QB has to play no matter what, is beyond reproach, and you basically need an executive order to take him out.
We have seen that with past Jets’ first-round quarterbacks, so it’s a breath of fresh air to see Douglas and Saleh not doing that here.
And Saleh doesn’t view this as a “QB controversy.”
“If Mike is playing phenomenal football, it is what it is,” said Saleh. “You might call it a controversy or not, but I think I can pull up an article on every single one of you guys that has mentioned that the best thing for a young quarterback is to watch.”
I’m not sure every beat-writer wrote that, but I certainly have, and will continue to do so. I don’t like starting rookie quarterbacks. Of course, there are outliers like Mac Jones who do well at rookies, but most don’t, and they hold back the entire team. It’s not fair to their teammates. It’s not fair to the fans to watch NFL Europe (former NFL developmental league) paying NFL ticket prices. I don’t view the NFL as a developmental league. It’s a multi-billion dollar league. The best league around. It’s Broadway. You going to use actors who aren’t ready for Broadway as stars in Broadway shows? If you do, the show isn’t going to stay open very long.
None of this is hating on Zach Wilson, who had thing has a high ceiling and rare arm talent, but there is nothing wrong with him sitting for a while. He needs a lot of work on mechanics, football work and reading defenses.
It’s good that the Jets have two adults in the room, in Douglas and Saleh, not caving to the narrative that Wilson needs to get back in there ASAP because he was the second pick of the draft.
In the past, I could have seen old regimes caving and benching White.
While Douglas and Saleh have made some mistakes, especially with some of their defensive personnel decisions, they deserve high marks for how they have handled the White-Wilson situation.
And watching Wilson today at practice, with a knee brace on his injured right knee, why rush him back?
November 11, 2021
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Friday.
