That's coaching. Lafleur isn't doing his job and getting him to do the regular stuff consistently. He's trying to make him do too much.
He played horrible. He aimed the ball all day and did not look comfortable. One saving grace is that this happens frequently for quarterbacks in London. Jameis Winston threw a million balls to the Panthers a couple years ago that were disgusting interceptions. So time change matters. He'd get more of a pass if it wasn't like this pretty much all year.
The issue isn’t just that rookies will struggle but more of how he is struggling that troubles folks. He was touted as a low turnover / very accurate Qb but he is struggling with hitting wide open receivers these first 5 games so far. People expect a NFL Qb to at least make the easy throws and gradually work into the harder ones but Zachs accuracy is sporadic all around.
He'll probably improve enough as the season goes on that he'll be the starter next year. But imagine if he really ends up with something like 15 TDs to 35 INTs, and his passer rating stays in the low 60s, as the team finishes 3-14 or 4-13. (This isn't me making numbers up; it's just extrapolating his current stats over the full season.) There will be a lot of posters calling for him to be replaced at that point.
Im Its hard to do that when your OC keeps calling PA and 30 yard pass routes with 2 recievers and 6 defenders in coverage.
But the posters dont make that decision and the team knows they have to improve the OL and weapons around him. But to mention the plan was to support him with a strong defense which is down a ton of starters.
If he throws more than twice as many INTs as TDs and the Jets are picking in the top 5, there will also be a lot of people in the organization wanting to replace him.
Zach was bad today, but the D allowed a few long drives in the first half and made Ryan look like his 2016 self.
I'm not even going to go into detail with Darnold. A stretch of games in the middle of the season where he had 3 TDs and 8 INTs. Numerous games with rating in the 30s and 40s and completion percentages in the 40s.
That doesn’t mean he can’t cash in on the easy ones when there are shorter play calls and he short hops a receiver in the flat or throws it 5 yards over their head on a quick out. I’m not just going to give him a pass and blame LaFleur completely. They both need to be better. The week after the bye and seeing the gameplan vs NE round 2 will be nice if we can see a small amount of growth and hopefully learning from the things that went wrong that prior game.
I disagree about today. Today’s loss is on the whole team. Offense, defense, coaching staff. Inexcusable to get demolished by a 1-3 Falcons team without their top 2 WR’s. Zach certainly played his part in that to be sure but today isn’t “on him” IMO.
He gets in no rhythm. Thats largely coaching, not setting him up for success. Its the first year tho, ill wait to reserve overall judgement on everyone
As much as I'm critical of him, it would be moronic to even think of replacing him next year. By the way, I'm not saying you suggested that. I agree there will be people saying it though. There are no good prospects coming out this year that would be worth it--if there was another "generational" QB then yes....you do it. But all the QB's in this draft have enormous question marks. Zach probably gets 3 full years to grow and we build the rest of the roster out. If he's still having issues by that time--we go get a QB and insert him in what should be a decent rest of the team. For my detractors on this thread, I AM NOT saying to give up on Zach--I am saying that I am not impressed by what I've seen thus far and I'm concerned.
LaFleur needs to acquire and watch some Browns games from last year to learn how to get a young QB into a rhythm.
The only problem with this argument was the pre-draft Wilson proponents insisting that he would be a significant upgrade over Darnold. Therefore, it's not unreasonable for there to be disappointment.
Davis Mills doesn't seem to be having any issues with that scary NE defense today....at least not yet.
