You are right, if he makes the layups, and improved accuracy a bit on some of the drops. We would still lose, but he would have been better. I still don’t think it would matter here, if it’s not 3 TDs and over 100 QB rating, this forum won’t be happy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I knew he was going to have a below average game. He was missing Moore, Davis and Carter. The Jets dont have the depth to overcome those losses. Having said that, Zach was even worse than I expected. He missed the most basic of throws, and missed them badly. Even his completions were off target and allowed zero opportunity for yards after catch.
Yeah it definitely feels like that. I don’t believe he’s physically anywhere near as inaccurate as he’s been. He looks like he’s regretting his decision to throw a lot of the balls he’s throwing when he’s halfway through his throwing motion which is why they’re falling short. Even still that’s not an easy thing to fix. You can’t simulate that sort of mental pressure in practice to stop aiming the ball. That’s why he looked so good against the Eagles. He was confidently throwing.
The big name for the last two years on the college scene was Trevor Lawrence and he sustained that through his last year at Clemson. The big name for the last two years on the college scene in 2018 was Sam Darnold and he slipped just a bit in his last year at USC. I guess what I'm trying to say is that college QB's are just a little over-hyped at this point. No real surprise there given that NFL teams keep over-promoting them in the draft. If the sports media know that a QB or two are going to go early in every draft they're going to keep looking for who those guys are and in the process they're going to over-hype them some.
Absolutely. He’s got the yips bad. Which is crazy considering how confident he was even in the preseason, namely the Packers game. He was letting it fly and he was spot on. But he’s just so in his own head now that he can’t separate his arm from his mind. That’s also why I’m not extremely worried. Just mildly worried.
They are overhyped, but I don’t think Lawrence was. He played plenty of winning football at a power 5 school, has a big arm, prototypical size, some scrambling ability, etc. I believe he checked all of the Parcells boxes for drafting a QB. If you want to argue that the rest were overhyped, I won’t disagree.
It's definitely not an easy thing to fix, but the hesitation wasn't something he went through in college. It does look like the game is starting to slow down for him a little based on his improved decision making, but I just think those early season struggles got him into some bad habits that will just need tons of reps to fix.
Lawrence was hyped about as much as a college QB could be hyped. "Generational talent." Even guys who didn't want to draft a QB would have signed on with taking Lawrence. Only guy worth taking in the first round, right? Well he's been absolute garbage. There were plenty of concerns regarding Wilson, but Lawrence was a shoe in. How's that working out?
I think the background of both Wilson and Lawrence are also hurting them which is why sitting on the bench to get used to life away from home from a season would’ve helped. It might sound silly, but both are extremely family oriented and were somewhat isolated in bubbles. Clemson has these big Dabo family nights where all the coaches bring their families and kids and the players can as well and they all eat and sing kumbaya. Wilson, obviously at BYU and his family associated (albeit not tightly wound like a lot of the members) with the Church of LDS has probably gotten smacked in the face by living in dirty Jerz away from his family. It makes the off the field culture shock a lot less of an issue when you’re supported on the field and by the coaching staff. It may sound silly, but these guys are still humans.
Zach is a rookie and he is struggling, there is no doubt about that. But to compare him to Sanchez? Sanchez' situation was a lot like Mac Jones', maybe even better. #1 defense, #1 running game. Fortress of OL. And with all that Mark still played like shit by this point - 12TD, 20 INTs, 53.8% completion. 63 passer rating. If Sanchez had a team Zach has right now, he would have 0 rating. I know Zach didn't have a good game yesterday, but he needs any help he can get, and these early drops were brutal. It's hard for any rookie to progress without any help. Mims was benched for some guy name Montgomery I haven't even heard of. Early on he could not get even slight separation on an easy route, forcing Zach to through incompletion. Cole had drops. Johnson was abysmal, and there was no other decent RB to pass to. He was in a tough spot, didn't get any help, and he didn't play well himself either. To be quite frank I think ever rookie would struggle just as much given the drops and what he had to work with. And yes, that includes Sanchez, who struggled even worse on incomparably better team.
The way I viewed the QB's this year was pretty simple. If you had the #1 pick you had to take Lawrence because he was the consensus #1 pick and most people thought he was going to be a great player. None of the other guys were worth touching with a top 10 pick. The value just wasn't there and there were many better ways to maximize value out of that pick than reaching for a QB. I wasn't on the Fields train or the Mac Jones train or that ridiculous guy that SF took who had about 300 passes attempted in college. I saw them all as clear symptoms of QB fever. Not to say that none of them could play in the NFL but their value was *way off* a top 10 pick and even a 1st round pick in at least one case. I think I thought the entire class of QB's was 50/50 to produce a franchise guy and Lawrence had most of that potential. I have probably dozens of posts on here that neatly summarize the short capsule I gave above. What I would have done with the #2 pick in the Jets situation was to trade down and maximize the number of picks the Jets made even more. Instead they took a guy unlikely to succeed and then tried to make up the difference by trading up for a guy and giving up more prime picks in the process. I probably would have made 8 of the top 100 picks in the 2021 NFL draft instead of the 4 the Jets made.
From what I can see all his problems are mental. He can run the offense efficiently and throw with great accuracy but his confidence and mechanics have steadily regressed since week 1. Saleh and ZW talk about him needing to calm down and I can see when things go well and he gains confidence he relaxes, his mechanics improve and he plays better. But, at some point one has to ask is the mental side a career killer and will it hold him back in the years to come. The mechanical issues he has developed will not be able to be cleaned up until the offseason. He is a hard worker and smart and I am sure he can improve and clean them up. But, mentally handling things under pressure one has to have doubts. Handling the mental pressure is the numberer one issue for a QB and if he is mentally folding in year one then the years to come do not look great. I don't see things improving the rest of the year. Not only is his confidence lost but he has lost his pocket presence. Early in the year even though he was being hit a lot his instincts allowed him to not take many clean hits. Now he is taking a lot more hard clean hits. The kind of hits guys who lack pocket presence like Justin Fields routinely take. The problem is he is not as big as Fields and he cannot afford to play as badly as Fields does. Those big hits will further erode Wilson’s confidence. The positive is he seems to understand defenses very well, his decision making has improved and he makes good reads. His issues early on were taking too much risk while now it is a complete lack of confidence and breakdown of mechanics. These can improve with familiarity and confidence in the offense but then again it is also possible that he will always fold under pressure. Next year will be his make or break year.
Could be a factor. They had to be an adjustment. These guys were heavily recruited. Maybe in college things came easy, the NFL not same, these are best in world. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Some of these guys have high ceilings. And not ready for prime time. Yet…. Teams jump on it, cause if not another team will. They are not plug and play. Even the good ones sit, mahomes and Herbert sat out and watched, same with Lamar. Before that was Rodgers. Not many are great out the gate, Marino, luck, Wilson. Etc. Wilson, Lawrence, fields. just were thrown into fire, and obviously not ready. That’s all this is. Mac too, but he has a team around him, and not asked to carry the load. Jets and jags are horrible, puts a lot of pressure on guys not used to failure and losing!!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Teams jumped on the QB's last year because they were stupid. SF traded up to take a guy who is less than 50/50 to work out, let alone become a star. They traded a top 10 pick this year plus another 1st round pick and a 1st next year as the price for drafting a guy with about 300 passes thrown in college who barely played in 2020. That's not stupidity, that's Chutzpidity. Chutzpah + stupidity.
They took huge risk for sure, but they must have thought he would become their FQB. For a reason, they think he is special to invest. The front office put their jobs on the line. Remains to be seen, from what we saw in the game he played, he was not close to ready! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think there may be a lot of truth in this. Both of them would of benefited a lot more by not starting opening day and seeing the game from the sideline to start. However, today’s NFL simply doesn’t permit that in regards to high draft status and $$$. I really think Wilson will look a lot better next year but that’s just my opinion.
