Missing the playoffs by a game or 2 is a big step, in my opinion. They cannot have the season end by October 1 or November 1. Be competitive in every game.
The season will all depend on Wilson. If he plays like last year, we're fucked. I really like Wilson and I'm praying he's the guy, but he sucked the majority of last year. He needs to take a big leap. He has the talent. It will all come down to his ability to play within the system.
I think JD needs several more A-grade drafts before we're really back in the conversation. 2022 was a great follow on to '21 but the '23 and '24 drafts will be the ones I think will define the JD era.
I think that's why the Breece Hall pick was such a good pick. Having a 1-2 punch at RB of Hall and Carter is, hopefully, going to let the game come to Zach more and take some pressure off. If he can play smart like he did down the stretch last year, I definitely see this team as a 7-8 win team at least.
I think the talent improvement makes it possible; I think the experience of that talent base makes it improbable. Growing year. Next Year (23/24) = playoffs.
We have to win the games like Atlanta, Tampa, and Philly last season. We start winning those type of games we have a chance at 8-9 wins
Any chance at 7-9 wins will mean we actually win some games within the division too. Getting 2-3 wins in those 6 games would be a nice change of pace and give us even more optimism about this team.
If Zach Wilson is who Joe Douglas thinks he is when he drafted him 2nd overall, nothing else will matter as long as JD keeps stocking the cupboards.
The answer is yes, but also no. It is a very talented roster now, but also young and inexperienced. It takes time to learn at the Pro level. Then factor in the STACKED AFC. It will be tough to make the playoffs. Not impossible though and certainly should be the goal. Not another "let's just play, learn, and have fun" season. It is time to win. It's time to not be circled as an automatic Win on other team's schedules. Maybe 2022 results in a (7-10) or (8-9) record. Maybe a little better. As long as we see progress, I will be happy.
I like and agree with most of your posts Bickety, but IDK how you conclude the bold. Does a QB line up and play the game by himself? Is there no accounting for the other 10 players and CS? I thought there was but maybe in the modern NFL they changed that. Because if you honestly and objectively take those other factors into account I don't see how you can say "Wilson sucked" - aside from the fact that anyone is allowed to say anything if they want. Was he good? No. Did he struggle? Yes. But how much of those struggles were entirely on him? To briefly recap - again: - The starting OL sucked for the first 5-6 games. - On top of that, Becton went down for the season. - MLF was coaching from the sidelines instead of from up in the box where he had a much better vantage point. When he decided to move up the play calling got much better but by that time Zach was out injured. - Their receiving corps was decimated by injuries. At the end Zach was throwing to guys signed off the street - Berrios was the # WR. - The defense sucked and put them in deep holes that meant they had to rely on the passing game which meant the defense could pin their ears back and rush Zach at will. These are just the low lights of what the rookie Zach Wilson had to deal with. It doesn't completely excuse the mistakes he made, but if you don't take all this into account you're simply not being objective. On the plus side, this should all serve to make Zach better, and I expect we'll see a lot of improvement this season, but the proof will be on the field.
I agree with this and I voted "yes" even though I'm not expecting playoffs this season. However.... if we aren't at worst right there in the hunt NEXT season I feel like I will be very disappointed, and at least a few things will have gone disastrously wrong, including Zach Wilson either not panning out or getting horribly injured. For the first time in over a decade I feel like there are legitimately enough ingredients available to make some real soup. Just gotta mix it all together the correct way now.
Great points, @ColoradoContrails but you can simplify it even more: Zach Wilson was a rookie QB thrown immediately into the fire, on a bad team, that overcame early struggles and showed a lot of promise towards the end of 2021. I think back to the second Patriots game. I thought Zach was finally starting to look pretty good, despite the terrible team and effort around him that day in New England. Then he got injured, had to wait a month, and continued his progress once he returned. He looked good those final 7 games, despite the WR injuries you spoke of. It's hilarious to me that some fans think instead of improving on those final 7 games, with an off-season under his belt, and far more weapons, plus experience, that he will somehow revert to how he played in Week 1 in Carolina or Week 2 against New England as a rookie. Those days are over. Zach is only going to get better, which is great news for Jets fans.
That's fair and maybe I should have said he sucked half the year. He definitely played better post injury but he still ended up the worst rated passer. That means he was mostly bad prior to returning. I've been called a Wilson homer so you know I'm not bagging on him for the hell of it. He did have a lot working against him but I honestly was expecting more wow plays and not so many "what the fuck was that?!" plays.
Nobody else made him throw, high, low, behind and a lot of these throws were not under pressure. He also threw some great balls, we need less of the former and more of the latter.
I'm sure everyone on this board knows that I'm about as big of a Zach homer as you can be but even I acknowledge he sucked last year. Let's call a spade and spade, he was bottom 5 in basically every major passing statistic, that's definitely not good. All of us should be able to acknowledge Zach has potential while also realizing that last year wasn't good and he needs to improve. To follow up with the bolded though, in his first 6 games he had 2 games where he had a Passer Rating of 80+ (@CAR & TEN) whereas in his final 7 (post injury) he had 4 of those games (PHI, @MIA, JAX, and TB). I felt down the stretch that the game started to slow down for him and he got into a bit of a groove. I'm very excited to see him this year with all of the weapons we added this offseason. I fully expect Zach to take a solid step forward and build off of his final 7 games of 2021.
I was a little disappointed with picking a RB there at the time but after absorbing some film of him I'm starting to come around to this logical argument. I now think it was a good plan, a good theory, and a good safe stabilizing move.
Zach is the X factor and we need to avoid injuries. Would be great if we got a vet now that is out there to help an area of need
We are a 6 or 7 win team in a loaded AFC. Chance to be picking top 10 again next year, however we should be FAR more competitive. Really young all around - need to grow and mature, but finally moving in the right direction.
