Watched the highlights now that it appears almost certain the Jets will take him. They looked like Mark Sanchez's highlights in 2009. Half of the throws he completed there will not be open against a good NFL defense. That means he will wind up forcing more throws, as Sanchez did and the turnovers are sure to follow. This is not saying the Jets shouldn't take him if they have a built-in plan for failure in the event that is what happens. However taking him with a plan to start him game one is a recipe for that failure and I would hope the Jets have a better plan for him in mind. The QB's the Jets have picked as the second QB taken high in the draft recently are Mark Sanchez and Sam Darnold and our record of preparing those guys to be really successful and elevate the team around them is really bad at this point.
The Jets don’t have Macagnan and Gase anymore, I believe JD when he says they are going to give whatever rookie QB they select, a strong running game and not ask him to win games by himself. We are going to see very little shotgun formation from this team. Lots of QB under center. It might be boring for a while for some Jet fans and you are going to hear guys complain that they need to let QB pass more but it’s not going to happen.
The 2009 Jets had the strongest running game in the NFL. I mean literally the strongest. They had a great OL with the only issue being Faneca's feet in decline and pass protection in decline alongside. It didn't matter because Mark Sanchez was not ready to do anything but manage a game and until late in the season he was having trouble doing that. His career with the Jets was defined early on around game management because despite having a lot of tools around him he was not capable of getting up to speed on any other basis. Whatever star potential he had was lost to the grind of trying to survive every play as a rookie. The Jets really need to have a plan for Zach Wilson that does not involve him putting a foot on the field until December garbage time. It's the best chance that he will turn out to be good. Really the Jets need to get a star player on the #2 or trade it down. Taking any of the QB's there without a very strong plan for their success, similar to Andy Reid's plan for Mahomes, is locking in a much higher failure rate than the franchise can afford at #2 overall.
Putting the QB under center and running the ball most of the time isn't going help as much as it would have 20 or even 10 years ago. Good offenses these days regularly light up defenses in the passing game, even with young QBs (for instance, compare the league-average passer rating in 2020 to that in 2010). If we go old-school, we could easily end up playing from behind and putting more pressure on the rookie. It's going to require a balancing act.
I don’t believe it’s going to be run, run, pass, but just like Shanahan did in San Francisco and Atlanta, and Mike Shanahan did when he was a HC, this scheme focuses on running the ball, it’s not a token mention of running the ball like some teams say. This team will run the ball a lot more and it won’t be like we saw with Gase and Gore, up the middle or draws.
