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It’s always the same script.
When a team is struggling offensively during the season, some reporters and fans call for the team to go more hurry-up offense and and/or replace the play-caller.
You hear this rhetoric every year in NFL cities around the country.
Robert Saleh was asked about replacing Hackett after the game on Monday, and then today, Zach Wilson was asked if playing more hurry-up offense would help him.
The idea that somebody would ask Saleh about changing play-callers is almost bush league.
I could be wrong, but I think Hackett has done a pretty good job, considering he’s playing with a QB who likes to go to his first read, and you look at games like KC, Denver and Philly, there were a lot of good first-reads dialed up.
This coordinator is under a lot of pressure because he needs to script the QB to succeed.
Some weeks that might work, others it might not. It’s hard to be successful doing that each and every week.
Former NFL GM Mike Lombardi made an interesting observation about Wilson.
“The Jets have been trying to manage Wilson,” Lombardi said on VSIN. “Why do think Wilson gets so many fumbles? He doesn’t want to turn the ball over. He doesn’t want to throw the ball into crowded situations. He’s scared of the interception. He’s rather you and I say he’s gone 200 passes without a pick.”
Wilson has only throw one interception in the last six games, and that was to cornerback Patrick Surtain in Denver.
Robert Saleh created some news when asked about who is making the decision to continue to start Wilson, while the coach was appearing on the Jets flagship radio station, and he said, “‘I’m going to plead the fifth.”
This become a big topic on the TV sports debate shows today, but we need to provide some context.
I made it sound like maybe it’s not his decision to continue with Wilson, and perhaps he’s being forced.
That isn’t what he meant when he said, “I’m going to plead the fifth.”
The reason he said that was because he was getting hammered with question after question on the topic, and after a number of tries by the hosts to get the answer they were looking for, that is when he said, “I’m going to plead the fifth.”
It’s interesting that the Jets coach gets hammered like this on the team’s flagship radio station.
The Jets should ask Michael Kay to treat Saleh just like he treats Yankee manager Aaron Boone and ask Don LaGreca to treat Saleh the same as he treats New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette or the New York Knicks Tom Thibodeaux. Kay works for the Yankees calling their games on YES, and LaGrece is the backup play-by-play guy for the Rangers and Knicks on the radio.
As long as Kay treats Boone the same as Saleh, and LaGreca does the same with Laviolette and Thibodeaux, it’s fine that they go after Saleh. We suspect they probably don’t.
Not into this selective tough guy stuff based on which teams are paying you.
But the Jets-Wilson situation is perhaps a case of “confirmation bias” when a team tries to justify a high draft pick or big money free agent signing by sticking with the player.
But Saleh must know, you can’t fool the guys in the locker room.
So how much longer does he go with Wilson, before he risks losing the locker room?
As they say around the NFL, “The film don’t lie.”
It might be smart to have Trevor Siemian active this week and if Wilson continues to struggle in the red zone and on third down, and getting the team in the end zone, perhaps you make an in-game change in Las Vegas.
November 8, 2023
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