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It’s going to be great theater.
I know I can’t wait.
To see how Zach Wilson plays upon his return after missing the last month with a knee injury.
While it’s never a good thing to get injured, he probably needed to take a step back, take a deep breath, and watch the Jets’ being operated by other quarterbacks, and now come back refreshed with a different perspective.
Will it help? We will see, but it was probably good for him mentally and physically.
And it likely never would have happened if Wilson didn’t suffer the minor knee injury. They likely wouldn’t have pulled the plug, even temporarily. An injury was likely needed for this respite to happen.
Something you have to admire about Wilson is he doesn’t chase windmills, get caught up in the noise.
He was asked –
Q – The offense as a whole has performed at a higher level with the last three quarterbacks than it was when you left with the injury. Do you feel kind of a pressure to maintain the level they’ve achieved?
“No, of course not. I mean I play my ball, how I play ball,” said Wilson. “Credit to those guys, I was able to learn from their reps and everything they went through, but I got to go in there and play my game and not worry about that stuff.”
Bingo. He can’t worry about that stuff. It’s irrelevant. I love how he said, “No, of course not” shooting down the narrative immediately.
First of all, if he were to look at that stuff, which he shouldn’t, because it takes away from focusing the job at hand, he wouldn’t worry about what Flacco did, which was overrated by some observers and in a loss, or Josh Johnson who’s work came after the Jets were down big in Indy, the only thing he that might make him worry a little is what Mike White did against Cincinnati, which was flat-out brilliant.
But he shouldn’t worry about White, who was benched after one bad game, and now in COVID-19 protocol, but he should learn from how White operated the offense in that upset of the Bengals.
Somebody asked him what difference people should expect to see from him after a month on the sideline. He wasn’t touching that trap question with a ten-foot pole. Why tell people to expect something and put a target on your back if you don’t do it?
“I don’t know. I mean it’s tough to say one way or the other there,” Wilson said. “I mean I don’t really care what anybody really thinks, if I’m being honest. I want to see improvement in myself, as far as when I watch the tape at the end of the day.”
Good answer. You start worrying about what people outside the building say, you will end up with them, out of the league.
But he did say one thing in regards to what he needs to do better without predicting anything.
“Play fast, play with my natural feel that I was given, play within the structure of the offense and let my playmakers make plays,” said Wilson.
That is huge. He was holding the ball too long before his injury. He needs to make quicker decisions starting in Houston, and stop waiting too long to pull the trigger, something that was hurting the flow of the offense, and the effectiveness of his offensive line line, pre-injury.
November 25, 2021
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