My concern with Zach was always the easy lay up misses. This has also become less of an issue in the last month. I think there was one miss out in the flat yesterday but a defender may have been in the throwing lane and the play would have been blown up if it had been completed anyway. Definitely encouraged and has played much better than his stat line says over the past few weeks. If he can come into next season maintaining his recent progress and grow from there then it is looking good.
These are the throws that should give all of us some optimism going into next year. Obviously his rookie year was not perfect, it probably wasn't even good tbh, but he's shown major progression over the last month+ of the season. He's gone 136 passes without an INT and has a 8:3 TD/TO ratio since his return. Compared to his 4:9 TD/TO ratio in his first 6 games. Again, I'm not saying he was even good in total this year but it's hard to argue that he hasn't been good since coming back from his injury.
There have been worse first year debuts by other QB's. Take Terry Bradshaw. #1 Pick 1970. 13 games 218 attempts, 83 completions, 38.1 pct., 1410 yds, 6 TD, 24 int, 30.4 rating 32 rushing attempts, 235 yds 1 TD. He just went on to win 4 Super Bowls. We need to build the whole team.
Can't say enough good things about Zach Wilson and the offense yesterday. He elevated his play, and his teammates responded. Whatever the issues were in the beginning of the season, it seems like he's working them out. It's really all that I could have asked for, and I'm glad to see it. So sign me up for more of this progress, please. Sidenote: Glad to see a little Wilson-to-Yeboah. Loved that in camp. Hope to see more next week, and a lot more of that next year.
Zach's play definitely tailed off once Edoga came in. He's terrible. I was encouraged by his play today. Obviously, he has tons of work to do but at least we are seeing progress.
Take it from a fellow Darksider - he played a great game. As someone who was expecting the wheels to fall off just about every play, they never did. He just kept making play after play, the offense kept moving, and if not for the defense having it's usual fire sale, we'd have won. The kid was IMPRESSIVE today.
People were concerned about his decision making. Well guess what, he's only thrown 2 INTs in the last 6 games. He's seeing the field better and making good decisions. Still has work to do, such as knowing that a NT on the center is covering both A Gaps so you shouldn't check to the sneak on 4th & 2, but he is a ROOKIE. His short accuracy was a concern. He fixed that. He wasn't throwing with touch. He fixed that. He's improving every week, it's nice to see.
The most important stat from Sunday and the reason the offense did so well was 2.38 seconds average time getting the ball out. Wilson’s presnap reads allowing him to get the ball out so fast these last 3 games is what we should be excited about. The second reason we should be excited is ML his system gives defenses lots of problems with the sweep, the run up the middle, play action and so on. It all looks the same. The ability of Carter and Berrios to get to the edge sets everything else up.
I notice that throw and the Berrios throw were both out of shotgun allowing him to make quicker reads. I loved the Berriors side arm throw. Before his injury Zach really struggled with PA anyone have any idea how he has been doing with PA since he came back? It looks like they are using it less overall and less in obvious pass situations but hard to say without seeing stats.
We're seeing continuous improvement and more than competent QB play. Based on the situation at the beginning of the season, we should be very happy with this result. It's clear that Zach has the ability to learn and improve and will continue to do so. With Sam, that never really happened. He started out decent, improved marginally by the end of his 1st season and never really improved again. Zach has shown more improvement from the beginning of the season than we saw in Sam's 3 years on the Jets. I'm not implying that Sam didn't work hard or that he had a bad attitude. He just maxed out in his performance. Based on Zach's skillset, I think he has a long way to go before his performance maxes out.
In Sam's defense, the Jets were a mess. The worst thing you can do for a young QB is change offense systems year to year. Throw on top of that Mono and you have a young QB that is struggling to take the next step. We need to be consistent for Zach and he will have the same offense for two consecutive seasons and that will help his growth. I feel bad for Fields and TL because they drew the short straws. .
I think I had a comparatively low number of throws yesterday that made me cringe, and there were some throws that reminded me of what an exciting player he can be if he gets it together. A couple of those throws to Yeboah across the middle were big boy throws and they were exactly where Brady would have put them, at the kneecap.
Zack was terrific. With a makeshift OL he was fast and decisive. The team lacks experience and it shows in crunch time. But one more good draft and free agency and they will be in position to make a big jump next year. Can't wait.
At the end of Sam's rookie year, he was better than Zach is now. (Before anyone objects, Sam was terrific against the Bills, Texans, and Packers down the stretch.) Though Zach has improved more over the course of his rookie year than Sam did, considering how bad Zach was to start with. Hopefully that can continue, and if it does, Zach should be better than Sam by next year, as Sam never improved after his rookie year.
