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I have no idea who this guy talks to,
but for somebody who just joined the beat last season, he already has amazing sources.
The Athletic’s Zach Rosenblatt reported earlier this week that the Jets view Derek Carr as “a significant upgrade” over Zach Wilson.
Who, working for the Jets, would tell anybody that?
It’s foolish to talk that way if you work for the Jets, considering the organization remains committed to Wilson, and is going to attempt to fix his mechanics and footwork, so he can realize his significant potential.
“We’ve got to help him,” Robert Saleh said in late December. “We’re not going to quit on him.”
Then after the season Salah said: “The one thing that I can promise him is that he’s going to have an absolute chance to go in and compete, but no different whether he’s our starter, whether we sit back and re-devote to him as a starter, whatever it is, it’s about him and him getting his mind right, and getting his mental and physical parts right and I think he’ll do that. He’s a good kid, works hard, he understands what the main thing is.
“I do expect him to take a jump going into his third year and understanding how to handle everything and decompressing and resetting and doing all of that stuff. I think he’s going to have a tremendous amount of growth.”
So while you are trying to do all this, somebody tells a source that Derek Carr, who is 63-79 as a starter, and has started one playoff game in nine years, is a “significant upgrade” over Wilson? What a slap in the face to Wilson.
Whether it’s true or not, why would anybody from the Jets say something like that? Is that how you rebuild Wilson’s confidence, to say a QB, who QB guru Josh McDaniels couldn’t wait to get rid of after last season, is a “significant upgrade?” That is beyond the pale.
Whether it’s true or not, why would somebody from the organization talk that way, and further diminish Wilson’s confidence, which isn’t in a good place right now?
And if a guy who is 63-79 as a starter, who has started one playoff game in nine years, is “a significant upgrade” over a QB who was picked second overall in the 2021 draft, you have a big problem.
Who played better against Pittsburgh this past year, Wilson, who led the Jets to a fourth quarterback comeback win over the Steelers, or Carr, who threw three picks in a Raiders loss, he was benched after?
Of course, Carr is better than Wilson right now, but people who view him as a “significant upgrade” perhaps don’t know how to scout quarterbacks.
Bill Walsh always said, “Very few people can coach the quarterback, and even fewer can evaluate them.”
Maybe the foolishness of telling anybody that you think a QB who is 63-79 as a starter is a “significant upgrade” over the second pick in the draft, didn’t come directly from somebody from the Jets organization directly.
Remember, Carr’s agent has a lot of people carrying his water.
“Carr has a very good PR machine out there where he will get his story to people out there to make it look like he was a lot of leverage,” Mike Lombardi said. “Pellisaro, Rapoport – all those guys – there all attuned to it. [The agent] is telling them what to say and the gullibility of the media, they just write what he says.”
But did somebody in the building say that to the agent?
If they did, they should be fired.
Don’t get me wrong, Carr is an upgrade over Wilson, but why would anybody from the organization want to dump on Wilson like that?
“The plan is to create the best culture in sports,” said Joe Douglas when he was hired.
Dumping on Wilson, to pump up the mediocre Carr, is not a good culture move.
February 15, 2023
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