The ex-Jets scout who said that Zach Wilson's 74% completeion percentage was a mirage and backed it up with data was spot-on. I never heard of ZW until 2 months before the 2020 season ended. He played in front of empty stadiums and HS competition. Should be interesting to hear from ex-Jets scouting department people in a few years who objected to the pick and wanted to draft Fields or trade it to SanFran for a bundle. What a disaster. And easily predictable, too.
The ex-Jets scout said that a TON of Zach's passes never went for YAC because Zach didn't throw it into the right spot. But it went as a completion, even a nice gain, but alot of those plays should have had another 10.....15....or 20 yards tacked on. I wonder how much the Jets -- and other teams -- were influenced by the fact that Kyle Shanahan was ga-ga over Zach Wilson (after Trevor L.) and was busting Saleh's chops to trade him the #2 pick. They had to be thinking "Shanahan loves the kid, so I must be missing something."
In my opinion. Which was also my opinion at the time. I don't think it was easily predictable that Zach Wilson would end up being this much of a disaster. What WAS easily predictable at the time was that there was an extremely high chance that he would end up being not any particularly better than Sam Darnold, who was already on the roster, ready to go, and just needed some help. As I posted multiple times at the time even if Zach ended up being a solid 10% better than Darnold it was going to be a bad pick. Just a complete shit job from a perspective of how to allocate resources. The pick was basically a hail mary that Wilson was going to be an absolute NFL stud. With similar chances of a successful outcome. What the Jets needed to do at the time was to just keep slogging in the right direction. Not be launching hail marys.
They needed to sign Darnold for the UNTHINKABLE sum of probably $25-$30 MM. So....they basically at worst looked at Zach as Sam Darnold on a Rookie Contract plus the option kicker that MAYBE he'll be a FQB. Win-Win. Joe Douglas even said as much -- sort of -- in an interview before they traded Sam with Michael Kay on TMKS. Except I think he was much worse than Darnold. At least Sam played in bigtime games at USC and couuld handle NY (as could Sanchez). I don't blame Zach. I blame the FO and JD. And yes...the fact that he wasn't a Captain was a SCREAMING red flag. No, it didn't mean he was Simon Legree, but clearly he rubbed people the wrong way at times. Plus, a year earlier he was #3 on the depth chart. It's not like he was head-and-shoulders one of their best players the last 15 months he was there.
This Forum was SURE that Justin Fields was the pick after he outplayed TL and then put up a great game (hurt) against Alabama in the CFP Champsionship. From what we heard later, there wasn't a thought about taking Fields over Wilson -- it was Wilson ALL THE WAY or they were trading the pick. I thought it was a close call (without knowing the negatives on Zach -- just assuming he was a legit prospect) BEFORE the CFP playoffs. After Fields had 2 great games with all that pressure, I thought for sure he was the #2 prospect behind Lawrence. I think I even posted here that while I wanted Fields, the fact that the Jets like Wilson over Fields must mean that Wilson is EVEN BETTER because Fields played at OSU and just had 2 great games against top QBs and top defenses in the CFP.....so the Jets must have done their homework and Wilson has to be even better than Fields even though hardly any of us had seen or heard of him. I was dead wrong trusting the Jets judgement. Same thing happened in 1984 with Ron Faurot....I never heard of the guy, but a friend's friend was in the Jets Scouting Department so I trusted him. Bad decision.
That sounds more like an obsession than an assessment. No wonder you could never see the reality of what Wilson is. The reality was enough to drive you away for most of the season; why come back now? At least wait until he excels elsewhere to scold those here who had it right all along.
Ha! People using a picture of ZW without knowing who he is for their Blackrock related memes on Facebook edit: god I hate how hard it is to post a picture on this forum!
