slow progress is fine with me as long as we keep winning and stay the best 4th quarter scoring team in the NFL
Zach will never be Mahomes or Burrow or Hebert. Zach's road to success might be the slow and steady route. He is slowly getting the hang of managing games now. Once he has that mastered, then perhaps he'll be able to slowly bring his gunslinger side along within the game. He's still learning how to play within the gameplan on any given Sunday. Let him master that part of QB'ing first.
I personally think all this Zach talk is completely overblown and does not take context into account. He led a comeback drive against Pitt when needed. Against Miami we scored 5 rushing touchdowns, of which he accounted for I believe 2 of them. The game flow did not dictate passing. Against Green Bay, that was a total defensive slugfest and again our running game was the focal point. Against Denver, another defensive slugfest against one of the best defenses in the league. Zach is being criticized for what? For not turning the ball over? For the game situations lending to rushing and doing so successfully? For our defense dictating those games? A lot of this makes no sense to me. Point to what Zach has done in any of these situations to jeopardize the team and a win and we can talk. People are acting like the Jets have needed to put the team on Zach's back and he fell on his face. Why don't we wait to see another test such as Pitt where he needs to deliver before drawing these conclusions. That next test may very well be this week.
What do you mean by more poise and confidence? When has he not shown poise or confidence? If i recall last week he escaped pressure in ways that 9/10 QBs in the league could not which showed plenty of poise of confidence and that alone likely helped the jets win.
By playing with more poise and confidence. I mean a couple things. One he needs to relax and play with confidence. This is his major problem and the reason for his inconsistency. When he presses all his problems appear. He hesitates, his mechanics break down and his accuracy then suffers. When he just plays without thinking or with confidence those problems magically dissappear. He does not bounce on his backfoot, his timing gets better, he becomes more decisive he gets better at pointing his left foot at his target and he becomes much more accurate. Saleh has talked about trying to get him to relax and just play since last year. The film breakdowns from Sabo and Pavia highlight over and over the difference in mechanics and results when he just plays and does not think. In regards to poise I mean more pocket presence. Last year post injury his pocket presence was a lot better. He had a better feel for rushers and space. This year he has not found that poise and is panicking a lot more under pressure. That is likely partly caused by lots of inside pressure making it difficult to move within the pocket. But he is not navigating the pocket like he did at his best last year. While Zach has saved a number of sacks the film does not lie and shows he is the cause of a number of sacks being indecisive and bailing early.
Whaat? He wasn't? Yeah I recall his love of Mond. But that doesn't mean Simm's is wrong about the ignorance of Jets fans and how they overreact. He is dead on right and kudos for him for calling out a fan base for being so blatantly ignorant.
As fans we have the right to be stupid and ignorant at times, especially if you have had to put up with this team for so long, Simms has had a cushy life and steals a living, he probably is in no place to call anybody out tbh.
I am not sure what to say about that. I have no love or hate for Simms. I give him credit for doing the work. That puts him way ahead of most sports media. At the same I think he can come off a little self entitled and could be less loud. But, that is how he and PFT make money. The most irritating thing about Simms to me is I hate how he always buttons the top button. But as far as media goes he is better than the norm. I still argue he is dead on right for calling out the idiotic overreaction by Jets fans. There is a reason why we can't have nice things. That I applaud him for and I think he should make a regular feature.
His brother failed to make the grade here, which may colour his judgement or not lol If Wilson came in and performed like Herbert then I would imagine the overreaction would be the other way lol
Yes, we all overreact but I have been strongly against emotional reaction posts and statements for quite a long time and strongly believe that unsupported emotional ignorant responses are harmful to discussion and exchange of information. There is no better example than this board where a few very loud people post idiocy with no supporting evidence other than because they say so on a very frequent basis destroying the ability of more rational fans to exchange information and discuss the Jets. Anytime someone like Simms comes out attacking ignorance, stupidity and overreaction I will support them. It should be our goal to have more intelligent, kind and thoughtful discussion and less idiocy. I cannot say I am a fan of Simms but on this point he is dead on 100 percent correct.
I would not care about Zach's stats is as part of game managing if he was making the plays he needed to make such as Mac Jones did last year for the Pats. The problem is that Zach is missing on too many opportunities and not looking good on too many of those throws. I get that the game plan is run and D, but in the end that will only get us so far, especially now without Breece. 16 points is not going to get us very many more wins. Now maybe part of the problem is that we are running too much and that is keeping Zach from getting a good rhythm, but that should not account for the bad mechanics on too many throws. We are on the cusp of being a playoff team. We have the D, we have the kicking, we have the running, but we need the passing game to be at least average to make it in. So far, despite a few shining moments we are way below average in that regard.
Zach had no bigger cheerleader coming out of college than Simms. Simms wants Zach to be good because Simms wants to stay credible. Zach does a good job of escaping the rush, but this year at least he hasn't done much even after he avoided the sack other than throw it away.
I don't know what you're basing the confidence on. It feels extremely subjective. Regarding pocket presence, he does when the pocket doesnt collapse on him. However, I would argue the Jets should allow him to roll more by design since it's a strength of his and he is comfortable with it. I do not agree his is panicking a lot more under pressure. Last year when pressured he would run around like madden 23 and chuck it. This year he escapes the pressure and largely has taken care of the football hence his lack of turnovers.
I agree with most of this, but the part about "pocket presence", to which I have to ask: "What pocket?" A "pocket" that lasts for an average of 1.9 seconds is not a pocket IMO. You mentioned that when he came back last year he seemed more poised and had better pocket presence, but it's not a coincidence that by then the OL was jelling and actually giving him a pocket. Against GB and Denver the OL was not giving him a decent pocket much of the time. And here's the thing about that: if pressure is in your face on two plays but then isn't on the third, it's more likely that you're going to be assuming more pressure again, not a clean pocket, and therefore rush your progressions and mechanics even when an outside observer would say, "See? He had time them but didn't have the poise". Again, Zach needs to improve, and there are times when he adds to his own problems with the rush by not calling out the right protection before the snap, and not hitting his checkdown immediately and instead looking to keep a hopelessly busted play alive, but this OL situation - and play calling - needs to improve if we want to see ZW to improve, at as far as passing downs go.
Zach isn’t going to look great the next three games against NE twice and buffalos defense. If he continues to win and not lose the games for us, that’s probably a good thing. What does that mean for his future? Not sold on him; but he gives us a better chance than flacco.