Who’s behind Zach starting

Joe Douglas... he had a draft pick that could have changed this team's fortunes and blew it. Apparently, he still can't admit it.

Honestly, I don't believe Aaron Rodgers will make that much of a difference at this point. He will be a year older and one season away from the game. The Jets will waste another year, while they could have cleaned the house and started rebuilding (O-line first, QB second).

 

Woody has no incentive for this. If he was pushing due to his relationship with Zach’s uncle then there’s no way he’d shell out what he did for Rodgers to sit Zach.

Saleh has been doing what he’s told, or more accurately doing what he can with the resources he has.

Douglas had multiple opportunities to bring in viable competition for Zach for very little money and/or compensation and has chosen to go with the most unimposing competition he could find. Wentz, Foles, and Matt Ryan all inquired and were told no thanks without even discussing cost. Wentz is a cancer? Ok, StL didn’t seem to care. We’re gonna see how cancerous Zach is soon enough. Losing in humiliating fashion is cancerous. Players losing tons of potential money because the QB can’t play effectively is cancerous. Wentz may be an asshole, but GW is getting 12-1500 yds this season if Wentz was the QB. Foles and Ryan are washed up? Ok, bring them into camp to see? Zach has never even been good enough to consider himself washed up. Dobbs, 6th rounder. Douglas is doing this because he figures he gets a free pass to try his prospect out since Rodgers got hurt. His commitment to winning this snapped right along with Rodgers Achilles

 

There is only one person who has both the incentive to stick with Zach and the ability to replace him but didn't: Joe Douglas.

 

No matter who they wanted to go all in for as a starting QB this front office was insane to let Mike White leave for another team.

 

A coach is measured by wins, so it's hard to believe, despite Saleh's utterances at press conferences, that who the starting QB is is not his decision. After all, the coach is the one responsible for getting wins on the field. The GM, in consultation with the coaches and scouts, is responsible for getting the players. At least that is the way it should be. However, with a dysfunctional organization like the Jets, it's hard to determine who's responsible for what. They are paying Wilson circa 10M/yr, so it's easy to see why they are so reluctant to give up on him. For fans, it's frustrating rooting for an organization that can't see what the rest of the football world sees.

 

I have no idea … but after 3 years, I just can’t imagine what they are seeing that we aren’t. What an awful chance at ruining their own careers,and possibly zacks mental state for the rest of his life. That’s something my wife brought up on Monday listening to greeny in the car. She’s not much of a football fan, but said the way they are talking about zack, I would worry about his mental state, especially if they keep trotting him out to fail.

 

I think it's a better look for Douglas if he admits his mistake and moves on rather than the world keep seeing week in week out that the QB can't play. Not sure what is helping his legacy or job security to keep trotting Zach out.

Not sure I buy there's a mandate to play Zach. I sure hope not. My thought is Saleh has his hands tied because the options given to him behind Zach are so putrid that it's hard to justify switching Zach for one of them.

 

You left someone off the list. Someone with a lot of influence in the FO, and insists they will return to play this season. Someone who doesn't want competition.

 

I have to land on a mixture of JD and Woody.

Woody because I would bet the millions that aren't in my bank account that he told JD to play the kid or else. I don't give two shits about the reasons behind it.

JD is guilty because he stubbornly refuses to replace this QB with a "ham sandwich" AND he doesn't have the stones to look Woody in the eye and tell him he's going to play whoever he wants to ensure the team is competitive and win. If JD were to do that and get fired well then he'd have the respect of most of the league and easily find a new job. It certainly wouldn't be a career killer. However, since he doesn't have the backbone to stand up to Woody, he and by extension Saleh, WILL eventually get fired. Not only that, by making the colossal jack up of continuing to trot out ZW week after week only makes their football acumen look foolish and uninformed. To screw 52 other men, the associated coaches, PS players and other support personnel because ONE guy, owner or not, demands it is pretty shitty. It really brings their character into focus.

Wilson, for his part, will squeeze every playing dollar out of this mess because, deep down, he knows he will NEVER get another shot in the NFL. He may knock around the XFL, Canada et. al. but he'll never be picked up by another NFL team. Not if those GM's want to keep their job. He will squeeze to ensure he has as much $$ as possible for his future. Which, I might add, should include nothing but "maybe" a high school coaching gig. Who knows.

As many others have commented, I really, REALLY feel bad for the defense. The NFL is a very short window of time for these people and to see it squandered by a prima donna owner, and those that are too coward to stand up to him, is a travesty. I'm telling you right now, if the Jets go out to L.V. and get obliterated that defense is going to execute a mutiny. I give them a tremendous amount of credit for keeping it bottled up this long. However, the season is just now past the half way mark and if this team, with the talent we have, isn't capable of putting away a dumpster fire, like the Raiders, we don't have a shot in hell. We have BOTH games with Miami and Buffalo will be looking for revenge.

What a massive shit show this F.O. is...

 

That's a good point. However, once you had the guy signed, if JD had any stones about him, the team would go, "You know, Aaron...I don't think we're going to go that way and bring in your buddies. We have O-line issues and what we are going to do is take that $$ and give you some protection so you don't tear your Achilles and end up on IR for the season! How about that?"

 

I really don't know. I don't see how continuing to start Zach benefits anyone. I guess its JD if anyone, but if he had that kind of sway, why was Zach benched last year?

Its entirely possible the three of them are on the same page, and they're just making a really dumb decision. Maybe Simien/Boyle really are that bad? I really have no clue. Simien seems obvious to me.

I really don't think they understand that fans would rather see them own up to a mistake, rather than double down and prove they're right. Even the best decision makers have blemishes on their records. Mistakes happen.

 

Rodgers is suffocating without the spotlight. He didn't lose stats, he lost headlines.

He is coming back and he doesn't want any Josh Dobbs' interfering. I believe the building storyline is, "heroic savior returns from season ending injury to make history".

 

The issue is this simple. They know that there’s a real good chance a replacement comes in and looks a whole lot better, just like it has every other time. That would be the final death knell on Zach’s career as a Jet, and limit him to a role of journeyman backup at best. It would also be the final self admission that Douglas and the organization fucked up yet again. I think JD is praying that somehow a light switch is gonna go off for Zach and he’s willing to tank the season in that pursuit rather than make the hard decision to end the hopes of his hand picked guy. Douglas and our FO have proven to be very empathetic, which is an asset. But it can also go too far, and I think our FO just doesn’t have the guts to do what’s right.

 

Yeah, but forcing zack last year was an issue too . Something really weird, because it’s hard to imagine they do t realize they are making the 2nd overall pick look worse, with every snap.

 

he already did that by trading for rodgers

 

Woody? Maybe if there are some sort of JetBlue connections going on, but that sounds like too much of a conspiracy theory to me.

Douglas? It's most likely him, but if he thinks sticking with Zach instead of admitting his mistake is helping him, he's an idiot. It's a lot easier to forgive a GM for a failed draft pick (cough cough Trey Lance) than it is for repeatedly playing that failed draft pick and costing the team games. If the Jets were winning with a replacement QB, the focus would be on all the defensive talent Douglas brought in and not his worst draft pick.

Saleh? The "plead the 5th" comment makes me pretty sure it's not him. I mean sure, he's choosing to start Zach over Boyle, but Boyle really is worse than Zach. And I'm not sure if Saleh has the authority to get Siemian on the active roster.

Rodgers? Maybe. But if so, he's also an idiot. If his goal is to make a heroic comeback, the Jets are going to have to win enough games before then for it to matter. Sure, he wouldn't want the Jets to trade for someone like Cousins (thank God we didn't of course) or Kyler Murray, but grabbing Wentz or Dobbs wouldn't have stopped him from coming back.

 

he didn't choose to play him. he traded for rodgers.
salehs comment was after answering the question several times.

at the end of the day, the coach decides who is on the field. saleh also said in the same interview "when you watch the all-22 you'll see the kid didn't play too bad" and "zach gives us the best chance to win" not really sure how clear it can be here

 

Trading for Rodgers and keeping Zach as the backup was alright for the offseason. We were paying Zach regardless, so might as well give him a shot if Rodgers were to miss a couple games with a minor injury. But when Rodgers tore his Achilles in Week 1, Douglas should have immediately brought in another option (and there were plenty of them) in the event that Zach were to show that he's not suited to quarterback an otherwise playoff-caliber team for an entire season. And after Zach threw three fourth-quarter picks against the Cowboys, that should have been it for him. Or at the very least, after Zach's first half against the Patriots, the new guy should have been starting after halftime. Allowing this to keep going on and destroying the team's playoff chances, even destroying Rodgers's chances of coming back for a playoff run, is pure malpractice.

Regarding trading for Rodgers, read what I wrote above. And does Saleh decide who's on the practice squad vs. active roster? I know it's his call to start Zach over Boyle, but Boyle is the one guy where that's the correct decision.

 

that is incorrect. The coach can only choose from the 53 guys on the active roster, he does not decide who is on the field beyond that.

When we are talking about the QB position, Saleh has only been able to choose from Zach Wilson and Tim Boyle every week

Joe Douglas has screwed this team