The first 5 games say a lot about a player's career. It's not like people don't come back after that point but if you looked at all the failed QB's in NFL history their first 5 games looked a lot like what we've seen out of ZW so far. If you look at all the successful ones it is rare to find somebody who has looked so far out of their depth.
-Aikman -Elway -Bradshaw -Manning -Manning -Warner -Plunkett -Luck -Smith -Tarkenton -Young -Baugh -Fouts -Moon They all had rough starts to their careers. To say Zach Wilson has failed... after 5 games... is simply dumb or extremely biased... probably both. He may end up a bust... but it's way too early to make that statement.
The vast majority of those QB's played in an era when the NFL was *much* tougher on rookie QB's than it is today. ZW probably wouldn't last a game in that era of treating the QB like a rag doll. Also, PI and defensive holding were nearly non-existent and QB's who were inaccurate short and across the middle got their receivers killed. Finally, ZW wouldn't have even gotten drafted in those eras. Teams wanted proven 3 year starters at a minimum and rarely took on a QB that had not been hot stuff for multiple years in the college game.
I never saw/heard that before. It's a good thing I didn't. I was never a big fan of CuMar. If I had seen/heard that, I would have hated him. IMO Pennington got more out of his talent/body than CuMar did. CuMar's own mother criticized him for dogging it and not running hard. The season after she did that, he won the rushing title and I think it was his best season. If he had run that way his whole career, the Jets may have been more successful.
The guy is a HOFer and one of the best players the Jets ever had. You do not dog it and run for 1,000 yards 10 strait years. He was not the only one saying it about Pennington. I remember Herm Edwards giving coach speak about Chad, just needing to stop thinking so much and let the ball fly.
So now Zach isn't tough enough?... and he's killing his receivers? I get it... you're not impressed. Frankly I'm not that impressed. Like I said... he may bust... but not for the reasons you say. You don't give up on a guy with his athleticism, arm talent and drive.
I don't know. I don't think he looked God awful against the Panthers (where every drop back was a jailbreak) or the Titans. He did look awful against NE and Denver. Atlanta wasn't great but it wasn't a complete disaster.
I'm not saying he's a bust. Not at all. Not after such a small sample size. Look at Josh Allen after his first 5 games in the NFL. His play was pretty awful.
CuMaR ADMITTED that he had not been running as hard as he could/should have been. One of the reasons CuMar lasted so long is that he didn't fight for extra yardage. Instead he would either go down immediately or would run out of bounds to avoid taking a hit. The season he won the rushing crown he started fighting for extra yardage and stopped running out of bounds or going down so easily. So he did dog it. When you get the ball as much as he did, if you didn't get 1,000 yards, something was wrong. Almost every starting RB in the league at that time was routinely getting 1,000 yards unless they got injured or just weren't that good. He was very good at everything, but great at nothing. He was a class act and a great Jet, but even though he's a Jet, I think he's a borderline HOFer. IMO there are Jets who aren't in the HOF who deserve it much more than CuMar.
Definitely! He was the main former Jet about which I was thinking. He was 10x the player CuMar was and can't buy his way in.
But by avoiding taking the hit all those years he extended his career. In fact ironically the very next year after that career season in 2004 was when he hurt his knee and never played again. Maybe a coincidence maybe not. But I don’t think he wasn’t running as hard as he could I think he simply stepped out of bounds instead of going for the extra yard or so. In a lot of ways that’s a good thing. Obviously we can’t speculate what would of happened had he not gone out of bounds but chances are he may have saved himself from unnecessary dings and avoided missing time. However I do recall him having a very poor AFC Championship game in Denver - I think he only gained 23 yards? and whenever fans discuss that game I find it interesting that stat is never brought up. It’s always the fumbles, the wind, Victor Green’s blown coverage, but not the piss poor running game that day led by Martin.
