Robert Saleh refuses to explain why in the world QB Zach Wilson hasn’t been benched yet, and the longer he keeps up his charade, the more unlikely the Jets are to a postseason berth
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ– The Jets’ season would’ve looked a lot different if it wasn’t for the first five plays of their season opener against the Buffalo Bills. Yet, this is their reality. A stacked team left to the helm of Zach Wilson, a quarterback who has shown obvious struggles steering a ship that’s just trying to stay afloat.
Wilson, who has stepped in for the Jets for this entire season except for a quick five play series in which starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers went down for an extended period of time with a torn Achilles. Now, Wilson just has to do enough to keep the Jets in the playoff hunt until Rodgers can make a return. But the Jets are now 4-4 and sliding fast after a 27-6 loss against a Chargers team that looked evenly matched.
Head coach Robert Saleh refuses to address the elephant in the room. Zach Wilson might not be the answer in the quarterback room. With the Jets in a reasonable position at .500 to take a Wild Card spot in the playoffs, it must be all hands on deck, a strategy that shouldn’t involve Zach Wilson.
When asked specifically why Wilson was still the starter over backup quarterback Trevor Siemian, Saleh had little to say, “again, fair question. Like I said. I don’t know. I’m gonna plead the Fifth on this one in terms of just — I’ve kind of explained it. Respectfully, obviously.”
Through eight games, the New York Jets are a tale of two teams. On one side they have serious potential: a top-10 defense in terms of DVOA and slew of rising stars in Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson, but on the other hand they have one of the league’s worst offenses ranking nearly bottom of the barrel in essentially every relevant category. The Jets are 31st in yards per game, 32nd in offensive touchdowns, 32nd in first downs, 30th in passing yards per game, and 31st in expected points added. Yikes.
While these stats holistically take a look at the offense, if we zoom in on Wilson, we’ll clearly see he’s part of the issue. Through eight games, Wilson has thrown for 1,600 yards and a tit-for-tat five touchdowns and five interceptions– leading to a .625 TD/game average. Abysmal for a quarterback who has so many weapons at his disposal. Yet, head coach Robert Saleh refuses to accept the blatancy of the facts and continues to move forward with Wilson at the helm.
It’s gotten to the point where Jets’ brass and the coaching staff has directly asked Wilson to stop taking risks with the ball, a crucial part of an offense that relies on its superstars, and instead throw for completions. While Monday night’s lethargic showing on offense wasn’t Wilson’s worst performance by any stretch, it still shows that when Wilson plays decent, the result tends to be the same.
“Sometimes it’s very obvious when you turn on the all-22 that the quarterback is just incapable,” Saleh told The Michael Kay Show. “That’s just not the case here. There are so many things that everybody needs to get better at, including the quarterback.”
“If it was just him, it would be something worth discussing,” Saleh told reporters. “But this is a collective issue that we all need to get on the same page with, whether it’s dropped balls, players being where they’re supposed to be, executing the way we need to execute, calling plays that need to be called, putting players in positions that they need to be put into. That’s all of us.”
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For a bit, one could think the Jets were going to make a move at the deadline as the picture of who was available on the block became clearer as the sun set on the date. Quarterbacks like Josh Dobbs, Desmond Ridder, and even Brett Rypien all looked like potential target options. But that Tuesday has came and went, leaving the Jets with little to no options and void of change as we enter the witching hour of the season.
For those who don’t think Zach Wilson is the problem, allow us to present this argument to you. The entire trade drama that brought about Aaron Rodgers was predicated and justified by the fact the Jets were only a quarterback away from making a competent playoff, if not deeper run. New York loaded up options for Rodgers, with Hall, Lazard, Wilson, and Cobb, but still seem inept and simply incapable of making a change at quarterback. Wilson has consistently been one of the NFL’s worst quarterbacks. He can’t handle any sort of pressure, taking sacks on 10.5 percent of his passing attempts; he ranks dead last among qualified passers in both completion percentage and yards per attempt, behind players like Tyson Bagent and Josh Dobbs who were thrust into the starting roles for their respective teams by surprise.
Call it organizational malpractice, call it a conspiracy theory (which was quickly shut down by Saleh), call it a New York curse– the fact remains the same. Either the Jets have so much faith in Wilson’s improvement or New York has already begun looking ahead to the 2024 season. The latter of which is in question because Rodgers has shown his quick recovery from his Achilles injury, a rehab process that should get him back into the Gotham Green by playoff time. If the Jets can make it there.
After all, Wilson was recruited and drafted to the Jets by Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas from BYU in the 2021 NFL Draft. Since then, he hasn’t caught a break or shown drastic signs of improvement, constantly ranking among the NFL’s worst– until this year.
“Everything about him is just so much different than a year ago,” Saleh told reporters on September 12. “It’s happening faster than I think anyone expected, obviously, under the circumstances. But he’s somebody that’s made a drastic improvement from a year ago.”
But is it truly enough? As for Wilson, he also requires a little bit of introspection on his end as well. A tenet of being a quarterback in which he has shown a great improvement and maturity from just a season ago where he apologized to teammates about his immaturity.
“Just too many mistakes,” Wilson said. “I think I started the game throwing the ball over C.J. [Uzomah’s] head, and that can’t happen. I have to find a way to be better at the beginning of the game, and as an offense I think we’re taking turns. And whatever it is, we need to be better in those instances, in how can we stay ahead of the sticks. I took two sacks in the red zone; I have to find a way to get the ball out of my hands. We have to find a way to be better there.”
“We’ve talked about the self-inflicted wounds,” Wilson said additionally. “And kind of just feels like every time something good happens, we have some sort of penalty or negative play. And that starts with me and communication and making sure we’re all on the same page.”
Despite Wilson’s clear-cut bad play, it’s obvious that Saleh is reluctant to pull him. It could be that the man next up is journeyman quarterback Trevor Siemian, who while has some NFL experience under his belt.. hasn’t been very good. With Wilson as the outspoken number one in the quarterback room, what could be a scenario in which there is a quarterback turnover in East Rutherford?
“That’s more hypothetical,” Saleh said. “The reality is to pull a quarterback to spark change, it’s my opinion, it’s got to be crystal clear that it’s [on] him. When you’ve got everybody with their hand in the cookie jar, it’s really hard to justify blaming one human.”
Saleh still chooses to pin the blame on the entire offense instead of attempting to make a change at the position that commands the most. While Saleh’s blasé approach to benching Wilson might work with a team less complete, the Jets are one of the NFL’s most promising teams. With a playoff window fast approaching, the idea that 2023 is a lost season is out of the picture.
New York missed out on signing a veteran free agent quarterback like Carson Wentz, who is now with the Rams as a potential spark to reinvigorate their season. While the Jets are left to fend for themselves with only the players currently in the facility. New York’s brain trust couldn’t have figured out any better way to amp up talent at the quarterback position? Is Zach Wilson the best this team truly has?
“Yeah, you can say, ‘We’ll blame it on somebody and let’s just do something,’” Saleh said. “But is it what’s necessary at that time to derail whatever could be and just create all sorts of other problems in the future. There is a global aspect to it, to any position.”
What’s strange is that Wilson has been benched before, underneath Saleh. Last year against New England, Wilson was benched, and then nearly a month later for Chris Streveler against Los Angeles.
Either way, one thing is for sure. Keeping on keeping on with Zach Wilson is not New York’s long-term answer. If this team wants to make the playoffs and keep any semblance of Rodgers returning this year alive, it cannot be with Wilson. While there aren’t many solutions out there, there are definitely answers.
For the Jets, until New York’s upper echelon wants to make a change, no one is coming to save them.
