Goodbye Zach

Edition #621

Good morning/afternoon

It’s old news now, but the Jets and Zach Wilson have parted ways. His trade to the Broncos brings to an end a tumultuous 3-year stint as the Jets saviour. We’re also now just over 24 hours away from the NFL Draft and there is some real excitement around the Jets and their options.

We safely made it to Bali after travelling for what felt like forever. We checked in at 11 pm Tuesday local time after leaving our house around 2 pm GMT on Monday, but the kids were perfect on the plane getting compliments from the other passengers on their behaviour and I have a Bintang beer in my hand (damn good) as I write this, so happy days.

The notification that Zach Wilson had been traded came through as I was on the runway in Amsterdam set to take off for a 12+ hour flight, so I had plenty of time to think about his three-year reign in NY, billed as the saviour of the franchise and leaving for an exchange of late round picks.

The Jets sent Zach and a seventh-round pick (No. 256) in this year's draft to the Denver Broncos for the Broncos' sixth-round selection this year (No. 203).

The Jets are also paying $2.75 million, which is 50% of the compensation owed to Wilson in 2024.

So in essence the Jets are moving their former #2 overall pick to jump 53 places in the draft and save $2.75 million in salary cap, which they needed to do as the effective cap space they had was not sufficient to sign their draft class.

The Jets got something, and as the weeks ticked by that wasn’t a guarantee. But there is no escaping the fact that the pick will go down as one of the worst in Jets history. Any time you draft a QB in the top 3 and he doesn’t play out his rookie deal, you’ve made a mistake. The swing and miss on Wilson forced the Jets to explore the veteran market and resulted in Aaron Rodgers arriving.

Wilson wasn’t always helped. He was thrown in as a rookie, without a veteran play-caller and without a veteran coach position coach after the tragic passing of Greg Knapp. He also had a defensive-minded head coach and the Jets failed to bring in a veteran QB for mentorship purposes. While he got a better shake of the stick than San Darnold, he wasn’t put in the best position to succeed.

Saying that, the results and his personal performances were absolutely abysmal and he has to take ownership of that. His lack of accountability rubbed his teammates, his coaches and the fans up the wrong way, but there was good evidence that he matured in 2023, but his uptick in accuracy came as a result of a reduced game plan. He averaged just 5.1 yards per dropback over the past three years and looked limited in 2023, but that limitation resulted in his best completion percentage (60.1%).

Overall he’ll finish his career as a 57% passer with 23 touchdowns and 25 interceptions, he never hit that 10 TD season mark but threw at least 7 interceptions in each season. His ability under pressure was difficult to watch, and it was always my biggest issue with Zach. It’s rare that players who panic under pressure become good NFL QB’s and you could see the panic in his eyes at times. Understanding what to do and where to go with the ball when you have a linebacker breathing down your neck is key to surviving in the NFL.

Zach would have to buck history to become anything but an average QB after the three years he’s put on tape. Rarely has a player struggled so much and gone on to do anything of note in the league, but at 24 it’s not impossible. For the Broncos it’s a low-risk, high-reward strategy. After releasing Russell Wilson, their depth chart consists of Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci. Zach has athletic traits, why not bring him in and see if you can coach something out of him.

For me, this is a win all around. Jets don’t have to release Zach and get to move up into a better position in the draft, if they want to move up earlier in the draft having a pick 50 places higher to trade is a much better asset.

For Denver they get a player at under $3 million who has ability, even if he’s struggled with the nuance of playing the position, it’s a worthy gamble.

For Zach, he gets to go somewhere where he could start in week one. He gets away from New York and everything that comes with it, and he gets a fresh start.