Can Zach Wilson be Fixed?

Edition #300

Good morning.☀️

It seems only fitting that the 300th edition of TJW should focus on one of the more polarizing players we’ve had in recent memory.

Zach has a base of fans that will defend him to the hills, if he were to complete 20% of his passes and throw 5 picks, there is a portion of the base who would say he was unlucky. Most of those fans are BYU lifers who came over to the Jets when Zach was drafted.

Whether you agreed with the decision to draft him or not, the simple fact is the Jets did and it’s in everyone’s interest for him to succeed.

The first two years have been horrific, let’s not sugarcoat it. But can it be salvaged?

Yesterday I wrote about Mike LaFleur and that piece went into some detail on how the Jet’s lack of experience in management may have contributed to Zach Wilson’s failure so far. But, Wilson needs to shoulder a portion of the blame and the Jets’ scouting department also needs to shoulder some of the blame. With how the offense has performed, there is plenty to go around.

🔊 Coach Saleh confirmed that the Jets won’t be using the last game of the season to evaluate younger players who have not seen as much time this season. Instead, they are wanting to finish strong and record a victory. This means you’ll likely see the same personnel usage as we saw last week. Shame if you ask me.

🏖He did however allude to knocking the Dolphins out of the playoffs saying: "Would it be nice to have Mike McDaniel hanging out with me poolside in a couple of weeks? Damn right it would."

💥 Saleh on Jermaine Johnson - "That son of a gun is going to be good, really good." - This week seems like a good chance to give him more pass-rushing opportunities, we already know he’s very good against the run.

⛑ He also confirmed that Mike White is a full participant in the walkthrough practice held yesterday, and Joe Flacco will again be the #2 QB.

💪 Saleh confirmed the Jet’s intention to maximize Wilson’s potential come “hell or high water", "We believe in the young man. It's not a talent thing...we're going to work our tails off to help him." But he did say that Wilson needed some time away from football to reset.

🌟 When asked about losing both Breece Hall and AVT, he responded: "It's a superstar league. When you lose superstars like that, it's going to hurt a little bit."

⛈ He was also asked about Michael Carter and his struggles this year. His yards per rush dropped from 4.3 in his rookie year to just 3.6 this year. Saleh explained it away as growing pains with a lot of second-year players hitting the wall historically, and players needing three years to develop. He reiterated his confidence in MC for 2023, although we all know it’ll be a lot of Breece Hall.

Former Jets CB Darrelle Revis was named as a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame last night.

What’s wrong with Zach Wilson?

That’s the million $ question that the Jets will need to answer. Because until you can confidently answer that question, it’s near impossible to know if you can fix it.

Through the first two years of action, here’s my take on Zach Wilson’s issues.

Struggles to play within a structure and within the pocket, doesn’t have a feel for pressure, and vacates the pocket too early instead of sliding and climbing. Panics under pressure and makes bad decisions. Accuracy is very spotty and anticipation is shown on around 10-20% of dropbacks which isn’t even close to being enough. Doesn’t show a great deal of touch and sails too many balls. Is clearly a confidence player and crumbles at the first sign of something going wrong.

If you watched Zach in college, none of this should come as a surprise. He went 2-4 against top 25 teams and his 2020 schedule allowed him to play plenty of hero ball against inferior teams, he also played behind one of the elite offensive line units in college football.

Those negative traits that we are seeing play out on Sundays were evident in his BYU film. Here’s a scouting report from NFL.com’s Lanze Zuerlein on Wilson before the draft:

Ascending quarterback prospect who possesses the swagger and arm talent to create explosive plays inside and outside the pocket. The gunslinger’s mentality and improvised release points are clearly patterned off of one of his favorite players, Aaron Rodgers. However, his play is a little more reminiscent of a blend between Jake Plummer and Johnny Manziel coming out of college. As with Manziel, too much of Wilson’s work comes off-schedule due to inconsistent anticipation and a desire to hit the big play. But like both Manziel (at Texas A&M) and Plummer, he’s mobile with the ability to extend plays and hit the chunk play. Wilson’s sophomore year tape shows troubling decision-making, so NFL teams will need to balance his 2019 and 2020 production in the evaluation process. He’s put in a lot of work to get to this point and has the potential to become a good pro. However, he might need to play with a more disciplined approach to reach his ceiling.

So when I come back to the question at hand, what’s wrong with Wilson? I start to wonder if the answer is actually nothing at all. That sounds a strange thing to say but stay with me.

We were told that we had a player who was a gunslinger who worked too much off-script and failed to throw with anticipation, along with having “troubling decision-making” - That’s exactly what we’ve seen at the NFL level. So is this just who Zach is? It’s an uncomfortable realization, but it may be the most accurate.

Here’s a play that really concerned me, and remember this is after his “re-set”: