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Interesting comment . . .
“Sources inside the Jets’ losing locker room told SNY that Wilson was walking around after the game ‘like he isn’t the problem,'” Connor Hughes of SNY reported. “It rubbed more than a few the wrong way, frustrating several others.”
Thanks to Bleacher Report for finding this.
SNY is a Jets media partner. You usually don’t see this kind of reporting by a team media partner, since they are in business with the team. You wouldn’t find this kind of reporting on the Yes Network about the Yankees or MSG about the Knicks.
I’ve worked a lot of post-game locker rooms over the years, and I have always found it really impressive when reporters are able to get multiple people to talk to them after a game about a problem. I’m telling you, it’s hard enough to get one person to open up off the record, but to get “more than a few” and “several” is flat-out amazing.
What some reporters do to cultivate relationships in the locker room with players, is talk to them in a very casual way, like it’s not reporter-player, but two guys just chilling. This softens some of them up to get to the point where they might give you stuff off the record.
But to get “more than a few” and “several” players to go after Wilson requires a lot of heavy lifting as a reporter. Like I said, it’s hard to get one. It requires a unique skill set as a reporter to get “several.”
Look, whether Wilson falls on the sword for his bad play in New England or not, he’s not struggling on purpose. And honestly, falling on the sword won’t make him play better. Just like Blake Bortles, Mitch Trubisky, Jameis Winston or whichever high-pick QB prospect you want to name, and over the years, there have been many that have had a hard time mastering the job. Being an NFL starting QB is amazingly hard.
Do you think if took all the blame after losses like the one in the Foxboro, that would help him read defenses better? Probably not.
“Did GM Joe Douglas and Saleh blow it when they passed on Justin Fields with the No. 2-overall pick of the 2021 draft? asked New York Post columnist Steve Serby in his Monday column.
The answer to that is “no” because Fields isn’t good at reading defenses either. Like Wilson, he’s is generally a one-read guy who likes to run a lot.
Right now, like a lot of young quarterbacks, Wilson’s having trouble processing. He’s looking across the line, and is not trusting his eyes, especially against the kind of disguised schemes Bill Belichick draws up. This stuff is really hard.
Next week, against the Chicago Bears, the Jets will face a simpler scheme, so maybe that will lead to better results for him, but aside from the issues reading defenses, he’s having accuracy problems, like overthrowing simple bubble screens in the flat yesterday to Braxton Berrios and Denzel Mims. These aren’t plays that involve readings defenses.
It’s possible the Jets give Wilson one more start to get his act together since the Bears are very beatable, however, Robert Saleh said everything is on the table right now at the QB position. Wilson might have opened the door for a change by saying he didn’t feel he let the defense down.
The Jets lost to a pedestrian Patriots team twice this year. The Jets really should be 8-2, not 6-4, and a big reason why lost both games was poor play from Wilson, who threw three picks in the first contest, and then was 9-22 for 77 yards on Sunday.
One thing about the Patriots coach is he has no problem benching players, at any time, who are struggling. He pulled two offensive linemen during the Jets-Pats game at MetLife, guard Cole Strange and tackle Isaiah Wynn, both first-round picks, for bad play.
“Bill Belichick is the best there is at making hard decisions,” wrote SiriusXM NFL Radio’s Pat Kirwan in a book he published a few years ago. “The Patriots simply don’t let themselves get emotionally attached to players. They make business decisions.”
November 21, 2022
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