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He’s far from the problem . . .
Garrett Wilson is a heck of a player.
Perhaps the most talented player on the Jets’ roster.
He does his job very, very well.
And he’s probably frustrated this year, at the same thing he was frustrated at last year.
He was asked about the Jets’ 14-game losing streak to the New England Patriots on a weekly radio spot.
“I inherited — I walked into a team that, we haven’t beaten the Patriots,” Wilson said. “I feel like that’s why they brought me here, brought me and Sauce [Gardner] here and the guys here — to make things like that change. It’s time we do what we get paid for.”
Bill Belichick loves bulletin board material. He loves it. This will be brought up to his team, just like the Jeff Ulbrich speech making light of “Do your job” from a reality show the Jets appeared on.
Some might think the concept of bulletin board fodder is overrated, but Belichick totally believes in it, big-time, always has, always will.
I’m a big believer in “process thinking.” Just focus on your next rep on practice, next film session, and make those the best of your life, and the results will follow.
Talking about ending streaks with the media is kind of like chasing windmills.
As are weekly player radio spots.
Why are they necessary?
Let your play do the talking.
I totally get why Wilson is doing it. He’s getting paid big bucks. How could he turn this down? Remember, he was in college football before the NIL money got huge. Can you imagine how much this guy would have made in NIL money? Wow.
But some advice for Garrett, who is a heck of a kid, don’t give them anything. Just give cliche answers every week. Don’t give them any meat on the bone. This quote was all over the internet. It went viral.
Garrett is a very, very smart guy. He went to a Power Five School which offered media training. He knows how to say nothing.
He should not think for one second that he owes them great quotes because he’s getting paid.
You don’t. Give them cliches and get back to process thinking.
While you have to respect Wilson’s hunger to help the Jets turn around their bad recent history against New England (and other teams as well), words aren’t going to do that.
Good QB play will.
A big reason for that dubious streak against New England is subpar QB play, like in their loss to New England in Foxboro last year when they had 103 total yards, the fourth-lowest total in franchise history, and six first downs, tied for the second-fewest in franchise history.
So yes, it’s admirable for Wilson to want to end the streak, but it’s going to be hard to do without better QB play.
They brought in Aaron Rodgers to help change that, but he got hurt in the opener.
You can say his replacement didn’t get good pass protection against Dallas, and that is true, but he also had no TD drives in four preseason games. How do you explain that? And his last pick of the Dallas game was a simple short pass to RB Michael Carter, that sailed over his head and was picked off, reminiscent of the mechanical issues that plagued him last year. He had plenty of time to throw on this play.
So the potential superstar receiver can talk about ending the streak “until the cows come home” (to quote Chris Russo), but words aren’t going to help end the streak, better QB play will.
And If I’m Wilson, I’m Mr. Cliche on that radio spot for the rest of the year.
I don’t think there is a money-back guarantee based on providing viral quotes.
September 20, 2023
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