I am more confident than ever in Zach Wilson. His play yesterday was fantastic. Definitely his best game of his young career. He is starting to figure everything out, despite most of his starting offense being injured around him. Hopefully everyone can be healthy in 2022, including himself. The offense should be really fun to watch. Possibly the best Jets offense we have seen in quite some time. The 4th and 2 play was bad, but it was bad for many reasons. Not just Zach. It looks like handing it off to Berrios would have worked, but I don't even like that play call. Kick the field goal, take the 7 point lead, and see if your defense can get a stop. If not, settle it in overtime. If you are going to go for it, think of a better play. Let Zach throw it. You can scheme a 2 yard pass, right? LaFleur got too cute. I don't even mind though, as he has shown he has a lot of potential as an offensive coordinator. Beating Tom Brady would have been sweet, but keeping the #4 pick and seeing the potential we have in Wilson was good enough for me yesterday.
I was tempted to remove the like after your “we shoulda kicked the field goal”. TB moved the ball 95 yards… so you think he’d have had more trouble moving the ball 75 yards? The momentum was swinging, fg woulda been a horrible call. I do like the rest of your post though. Cheers.
It's the safer call. It keeps the Jets in the upper hand. At least to me. If you take the 27-20 lead, you have the chance to stop them and win. If you don't, it goes to overtime, and you have a chance to win there too. Going for it is fine (especially as a 4-11 team). You get the 2 yards, you win. If you don't though, you likely lose since you are going up against Brady. And that is what happened. As it turns out, the Jets still should have won, but the defense made some truly horrendous plays on that final drive. That's life. Doesn't take away from the great game Zach Wilson had. Or Braxton Berrios. or the makeshift O-line standing tall against the Super Bowl Champs. Still an impressive day that the Jets can build off.
Okay. I disagree. I think he'll be better than Sam but nothing spectacular. Let's check back in a couple years and see who's right. (I hope you are.)
Darnold started playing pretty consistent solid football at the end of his rookie year and it looked like we might actually finally have our guy. Then, the next year, it he showed that the end of his rookie year was nothing more than a few good weeks. I obviously hope the best for Zach, and he has taken steps in the right direction, but I can't say I'm a believer. I'm more of a doubting Thomas at this point.
How many QBs are great right out of the gate as a rookie? Guys like Herbert, Wilson, Luck, and Cam are exceptions to the rule, not the norm. QBs need time to grow and learn. Josh Allen didn't throw for a 250 yard game until his 2nd year and didn't throw for 300 yards until his 3rd year. The Jets have been trotting out absolute scrubs at WR and TE for the last 3 weeks and Zach continues to show improvement. There's not much you can do yardage wise when guys are covered like white on rice for the entire game. The yardage and touchdowns will come when the skill positions are better. Between the WRs and TEs the Jets have trotted out the last 3 weeks, the only one that would get meaningful snaps on another team is Berrios.
One thing that has continued to help Wilson over the last few weeks is the run game excelling. Having a good run game is keeping the D's more honest and having to defend the run too. It's helping put Wilson in good spots to help the team. Were running and offense that helps the QB too and with this improvement, I'm excited to see what a full off season and training camp can bring. Sent from my M2007J20CG using Tapatalk
As good a TB defense is, they #14 in yards, and #11 in points. Very good, not great. Buffalo is #1 in yards and #2 in points. The best. It also looks like Fant may be on the IR for the final game, which would be a huge blow. There is a reason why even a very good team like NE didn't want a rookie to throw against them, and when they were forced to do so, Jones ended up with his worst game of the season with multiple picks. For Zach, or any QB, to have a good game against them with the depleted roster we have, it would take a miracle, this is just a reality of the situation.
The odds of any rookie starter becoming elite are slim to begin with, considering there are 32 teams and only 5-10 elite QBs. And if anything, Zach's performance this season has decreased the odds of him being elite relative to when he was drafted. Sure, you can cite specific good traits Zach has or how bad a situation he's in here, but frankly, a lot of the people doing that here would be doing the same thing for Lawrence, Fields, etc. if they were fans of the Jags, Bears, etc. (Also fwiw, while the Jets talent level is very bad, LaFleur is a better offensive coach than what Lawrence and Fields have.)
Exactly. But I'm pretty sure that if the expected happens and Zach and the Jets are beaten soundly, there will be a return of the Wilson Haters Club in full force.
It's still waaaaaaayy too early to proclaim he is going to be the one. We've been down that road one too many times. I give the kid credit, by far his best game, I'm hopeful that Is the trend moving forward for the kid. However. Until I see It consistently. Cautiously Optimistic Is the best I can do. This was the same type of vibe we got with Sam Darnold. He had more than one really solid game his rookie year. I'd pump the brakes a bit and hope for the best.
Reality won't stop the haters, however. They're like "reality be damned." Haters just wanna hate. Woe unto Zach if he has a bad game vs Buffalo. It will be all his fault, not the result of playing with a patchwork OL and WRs of 2nd and 3rd stringers, and his best RB probably being out as well.
Yeah I'm not a true believer yet either. Too much poor play early in the season. I'll say cautiously optimistic and I can't go further than that. The bright side is he's definitely improving and has eliminated the big mistakes that plagued his earlier games. The trend is definitely up. On the other hand, he's been putting up low yardage and TD numbers along with low INT numbers. He's also still had bad issues with short accuracy other than a couple games. This most recent game was the best one of the season for him, top to bottom. I hope my optimism isn't recency bias. I need to see a lot more performances like that one before I'll allow myself to truly believe.
What do you mean by that? I said Zach's current odds of becoming elite are probably lower than they were last spring when he was drafted. Not that there are different types of elite.
