Mac Jones 5TD 3INT - Zach Wilson 4TD 4INT - Was this guy high when he was trying to do the math on this? At least they got the passing yards right. Cherry pickin to make an argument Is fun. Why look at the complete context between the two? Let's just pick out a few games that make things look better than they really are... ? Sounds good. Oh, can we talk about the average completion % between the two based on those games for a second? Mac Jones = 74.9% avg Zach Wilson = 58.4% avg Yikes... How about rating? Mac Jones = 100.7 Zach Wilson = 75.5 How about fumbles? Mac Jones - 1 Zach Wilson - 3 You can go a lot of ways when making an argument. Cherry picking, probably not the way to go. Just saying.
I agree, it made no sense to cherry pick. Mac Jones has played a lot better than Zach, we can't just include common opponents, it's not like other teams Jones faced were total garbage and Jets faced elite. Also not including head to head game helps Zach too . I don't think anyone with common sense can deny that Jones outperformed Zach thus far (and the same is true for any other rookie and most starting QBs in NFL). What I am wondering though is that how does Jones doing well on a good NE team makes Zach and other rookie QBs who struggled on bad teams busts? I mean kudos to Jones for looking darn good, but it's not like everyone here advocated picking him over Zach, JD went against common sense, and now Jones is looking better. Picking the only rookie QB who has done great, who is in a different situation, and whom no one here wanted to begin with, to show Zach is a bust makes no sense to me. Yes, Jones figured it out with Patriots, good for him. Zach needs more time before we declare him a bust though, he might just figure it out as well even if it takes him more than half a season like it did Mac.
It doesn’t make them busts. But the situation the quarterback walks in to can be somewhat irrelevant when trying to predict longer term success. Player A walks into a good situation and plays decent. Player B walks into a bad situation and plays poorly. The situation is bad, but that doesn’t mean they will somehow miraculously have a easier time to recover from the bad situation. Look at all of the quarterbacks that have gone to bad situations - very few make it out alive. You can blame the situation and that’s all good, but that doesn’t make them a good player.
I am not even blaming the situation to large degree, though I do think Zach would have done better in NE than he is doing here just because of stronger and more experienced roster/coaching. I am giving full credit to Jones though. Last year Cam had 83 rating in NE, and Mac a rookie is already at 97. Heck Belichick dropped Cam for Mac. I am not sure if Zach would do as well in NE. What I am saying though is that Zach needs more time. I thought he was doing better in the last game he had against NE before injury. He missed 3 weeks of practice, had a serious injury (practiced two weeks and is still not 100%), and rebounded from poor first half yesterday. Lets see how he does the rest of the reason. I expect to see an improvement between what he has done up until now, which is not good for NFL starter (57.6% completion, 4TDs, 10 INT, 62.9 rating) and the remainder of the season.
You’re being very hyperbolic about a sprained knee ligament. NFL players, specifically non-running quarterbacks, play with injuries like that all the time. Regardless, he gets the rest of the season, but I can’t really quite understand why anyone wouldn’t be concerned about his performance yesterday?
Which is totally fair. I feel like just a little bit of that benefit of the doubt should extend to someone who’s only played 7 games as well but different strokes for different folks I suppose. Edit: Maybe “benefit of the doubt” isn’t the best way to phrase it for Zach because he hasn’t earned that. So sub benefit of the doubt with leeway.
It's not necessarily the injury he played with, it is more of missing weeks of practice because of it. Also, while in the first half he looked like shit (as many pointed out) he did much better in the second and enough to win the game to the point I think overall the performance was not terrible. He is a rookie, I need to see more before being concerned.
My biggest worry so far with Zach are not the ‘rookie mistakes’ that we expect to see. I’m not comparing Zach with Sam, but there is one trait I see in Zach that really concerns me. It’s the one thing that I don’t think Sam ever got over and I think it may be the ultimate reason he’s struggled so much. To put it bluntly, they both look scared shitless out there. I see absolutely no poise with Zach in the pocket. I see panic in Zach’s body language and face and an over eagerness to get out of the pocket and play off script. Now both Sam and Zach both suffered O-Line hell with the Jets, but if you watch Zach he also panics when he’s not really under pressure. Almost every play for Zach looks like a battle for survival to me. He looks like a deer in the headlights and that’s before a snap has been made. I’m hoping he gradually gets used to the pressure, benefits from an improved line and just shows a bit more calm out there. But to me it’s the biggest of red flags at this time, ahead of mechanics or ability to read a D - he’s got to learn to deal with the pressure to have any chance of progressing. This is a mindset issue and I’m not so sure it’s so easy to fix. I hope I’m wrong and the kid gets over it.
Peyton Manning set rookie records for interceptions *and* TD's thrown. The Colts were in the top 10 that year in passing yards gained and passing TD's. Peyton and Zach have literally nothing in common in their rookie performances other than they were on bad teams. Peyton performed like an NFL star in waiting and Zach has performed like a CFL QB in waiting.
What ultimately killed Sam is his inability to read defenses. Zach is already ahead of Sam in that regard. He is making mostly the correct reads it is just taking to long and he is over thinking. Coming off an injury a game like this is expected. He will clean up the rest making the correct reads is more important right now.
it’s helped a lot of QBs actually. Wilson is out of whack. His accuracy is not this terrible. He didn’t suddenly forget how to throw a 5 yard pass. Because he’s thinking too much he’s developing bad habits. I would bench him so he forgets those bad habits immediately. His game needs a refresh
I am trying to be patient, remain positive, and give him a chance. Sometimes he reminds me of your screen namesake!
All this talk about him being a That maybe so - i.e., reading D (Iam not sure I agree) but his mechanics have not been good and IMHO haven't improved, A lot of throws in Sunday's game were behind, low and just plain off target. I hope your right but I watch every JET QB since Joe and a lot of others in the last 54 years and I am not convinced that ZW is a good fit for this scheme or the NFL (just a gut feel watching him play) but what the hell do I know, I am a long-suffering Jet fan, sigh.
