Fundamentals are the 1st thing to go when you are thinking too much. It's the most complicated offense Wilson has been in and for the first time he has grown men telling him to throw them the ball so they can make their bonuses, shit like that. All while he's just trying to protect himself because the offensive line can't block. His fundamentals were falling apart. We can all see that. Its why he couldn't complete a basic 3 yard dump off. --- Why you gotta bash the writer because he shared some hard truths? It make you feel good inside? The story itself should make you feel better that the Jets recognized this for once and are trying to fix it before its too late
If it was just an opinion piece, fair enough, it's not exactly an out-there opinion. But it is dressed up like a news story, like he heard it from someone, when really it is just his speculation. The headline, 'Chris Mortensen shares what he's heard about Zach Wilson', is bullshit. The piece doesn't even claim that, it's just what he is inferring from the hiring of Beck. It's just really crappy 'journalism' all round.
Speaking for myself and a thousand-billion-jillion Jets fans - dealing with hard truths isn't anything new. The problem here is that this isn't a story that Chris Mortensen is reporting; it's one that he's manufacturing and then amplifying. The worst part is, it could very well be true but we'd never know, because it's framed as Chris Mortensen's own conjecture without any sourcing or supporting facts whatsoever. Lazy and irresponsible. His words: The hiring of John Beck, "suggests, as we once showed you, that fundamentally Zach Wilson was falling apart.” That's the whole story in one line. Begs the question - suggested by who? Even a quick text to someone in the front office, “ Rng stry ZW mechnx = ”, with a company-line response like “No, ZW = ”. Minimal effort. At least we'd know that this is something other than just a story about what Chris Mortensen thinks. My bigger problem, though, is with the grave conclusion. Geezus, even Tom Brady and Peyton Manning had their own QB coaches throughout their careers, which Mortensen knows, of course. Were their mechanics constantly “falling apart”?! But, as you point out, for Jets fans there’s an encouraging silver lining to this story. We just have to hack through a thicket of the reporter's own personal musings to find it. If in two years the Jets are picking another QB at the top of the first round, there better a whole slew of people sinking into a hot bath and opening their veins. Pleased to see they may just understand that.
Mac Jones has great stats so far. I've watched the Patriots game highlights and he is very accurate and smart and poised. It seems that he throws very few passes more than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. In fact, most of his passes are less than 5 yards. Why are the other teams' defenses ineffective against him if they know he'll be throwing short all day?
Because they're the best coached team in football and their players execute, they rarely beat themselves. Mac Jones would be horrendous on this Jets team; sometimes players just get put into the right situation.
He's doing the same thing in New England that he did at Alabama -- He gets the ball into his playmakers hands and lets them go to work, nothing wrong with it but without a strong defense or supporting cast, it won't work. I don't see him as a guy that will elevate the players around him, he will work within the system.
Ok but Jack they gave him 35 seconds of air time, literally, to report the story. That's not enough time to share a long list of citations. Anyway, our eyes alone should be enough to tell us Wilson was struggling with the fundamentals. What else would explain why a rookie who was accurate his whole college career suddenly can't hit a 3 yard pass to save his life
The worst thing about football is it's only played once a week and the media has to fill the rest of the days with b.s.
Because he can throw a good deep ball when necessary which keeps defenses honest. The Pats also use their running game well to keep defenses off balance. He is running what is very close to the traditional West coast offense. Montana ran that and nobody called him just a game manager. Once NE gets genuinely dangerous receivers people will see another side of Jones. Its clear he has been learning very quickly and has much of the mental game already down tight.
Struggling with isn't falling apart though, but then I guess that rookie ZW struggling with fundamentals as he adjusts to NFL wouldn't exactly stack up the clicks.
I've only seen Mac Jones once this year, so an admittedly limited sample size, but that wasn't the Mac Jones I saw at Alabama in 2020. Which only makes sense when you go from a historically good offense surrounded by first-round draft picks to . . . not. Watching Mac Jones with the Patriots struck me as eerily similar to how I remember the Patriots using Tom Brady in 2001. Back then it was called "dink and dunk" Nowadays, it has the souped-up title - "controlled passing game" - a lot of underneath throws, distributing the ball to a crapload of playmakers and asking THEM to bring it downfield. If anyone here recalls 2001 differently, have at it. That's how I remember it. But you only have that luxury with a young QB if your defense is stopping the dudes on the other side. Seems to me, the surest way to send Zack Wilson and his hottie girlfriend packing back to Utah in a crumpled mess would be this continuing campaign to lock down the coveted No. 32 slot in team defense.
Mac Jones was the guy I wanted if the Jets passed on Wilson and traded back. As someone posted above, my logic was that A) He's smart and very accurate, and B) Keep him away from NE and BB. That said, I much preferred Wilson for our situation because our OL was a mess and the rest of the skill positions, aside from Crowder, were completely unproven, so putting a fairly immobile Jones in that mix was a recipe for failure. And something those who are bashing Wilson should consider: imagine him on NE. You think he'd be struggling and having questions about him even belonging in the NFL? LOL!
I think you are misunderstanding where most of the grumbling is coming from. Nobody disagrees with the basic premise that Zach has been struggling. It's a matter of personal opinion as to whether he has been 'struggling', or 'finding his feet' or 'falling apart'. That isn't what people are unhappy about with this story. It's the fact that it's dressed up like he has inside information that the Jets themselves think he was 'fundamentally falling apart' when really it is just his personal take on the situation, extrapolated from the hiring of Beck.
Yeah, I get that. And, trust me, I blame ESPN more than I blame Chris Mortensen. Somewhere in this thread someone mentioned how this seemed like they were throwing the old NFL reporter a bone out of courtesy. I think that's dead-on. If he's not at least going to "reach out to the Jets for comment," he shouldn't be on at all. Hell, we have such low standards for news reporting, he could have even given us the ol' "My sources tell me that. . ." This may be just football and sports, but the Jets are a $4 billion company. Imagine if ESPN, a multi-billion dollar business, announced an employee drug testing program and some business reporter used that sole fact to publish a 35-second story on how that "suggests ESPN is dealing with drug use in the company." The story might even be true, but it would be criminally irresponsible to put that on the air without more.
Ok I see. Well I think ya'll are reading into it too much. Especially if you dont even disagree with the point being made
