The 5 Throws of Zach Wilson

Edition #490

Good morning ☕

Apparently, time heals, but 24 hours later…I'm still fuming. I'm going to try and focus on the positives, but is it too much to ask these officials to call a game fairly? To find some consistency? We have the stank of 10 years of football futility hanging around our necks like the chains of Jacob Marley, and now when we put it all together we get kicked in the crown jewels by officials who are clamouring for tickets to a Swifty concert, where they’ll hold hands with Roger Goodell and bow to the alter of Patty Mahomes.

I look forward to the weekly Thursday apology from the league office on the mistakes they made that cost us the game. That will help me sleep at night 🙄.

I'm not a huge conspiracy theorist, but when you have the NFL's official channels posting things like this…

And this….

It does make you wonder doesn’t it Sauce…

😬 One player I feel sorry for? Michael Carter II. He's become one of the best slot corners in the NFL and we don't talk about him enough. Last year he had an interception scrubbed off the board against the Patriots on a questionable JFM penalty, this year another interception scrubbed on a 🐶💩 call on Sauce. In the words of coach Boone, ‘Let the boys play’.

✂️ I'm getting to the point where I think the Jets need to cut ties with Dalvin. It's becoming glaringly obvious that he has nothing left. The Jets are significantly worse when he's on the field, not just rushing but as an overall offence. According to Michael Nania, the Jets averaged 3.4 yards per offensive play with Cook on the field, and 6.8 yards per play with him off the field.

This is about as good a lane as you’re going to get. You have McGovern and Tippmann doing a fine job to seal and Garrett is out and blocking, just make the right read and that’s an explosive play. Instead, you cut back inside to traffic. If this is Breece or even Michael Carter, this is a very positive play instead of what it was.

🤬 I didn’t touch on this yesterday and I should have done. Rodney Harrison’s comments to Chris Jones where Harrison the “analyst” actually calls Zach garbage and tries to get a rise out of Jones who won’t fall from the bait, is highly unprofessional. You can critique him, and you can ask a lot of questions, but the way he phrased it, and the way he acted was really poor form.

🔴⚪ Joe Tippmann had another good game last night, allowing 1 pressure on 43 pass-blocking snaps. Becton and AVT had 3 pressures each with Becton tagged with 1 sack. Connor McGovern was also at 2 whereas Laken continued his bounceback season with 0.

👍 Ashtyn Davis only played 6 coverage snaps, but he got himself an interception.

🔐 Sauce Gardner allowed 14 yards in coverage yesterday, that’s a whopping 133 yards through four games. Yeah Sauce is still elite, teams just aren’t throwing at him very much. He has already had 5 missed tackles though, he had 6 through the entire 2022 season.

💨⚡ Bryce Huff led all defenders with 7 pressures, Quinnen was just behind on 6 and JFM had 5. Interestingly Jermaine Johnson had 0, although as we all know, he was held tighter than a high school prom date during a power ballard.

📉 One interesting side note is that Carl Lawson’s role has significantly diminished. He had just 10 pass-rush snaps, only 3 more than Will McDonald and significantly less than Huff, JFM, and a little less than Clemons, JJ.

🫡 Zach Wilson completed 58.3% of passes under pressure. That’s a fantastic jump for him and you know how important I think passing under pressure is for an NFL QB’s future.

Having watched the game a second time, I have even more appreciated for two things

1. The job that Zach Wilson did, it was absolutely outstanding. I know that fumble on the snap will haunt him and some people will use that as the mighty stick to bash him with. But in terms of timing, footwork, pocket presence and accuracy…this was the best game of his career by a country mile. If he plays like that against Denver, he’ll hang 30 points on that defence…I can’t wait to see if he can find consistency.

2. The offensive line, man when that unit is humming and it was last night, it’s a fun unit to watch. Just look at the hole they generate above on that Cook play. Now watch some of these throws below and watch the blockers up front. A good offensive line with a confident Zach Wilson…don’t call time on the Jets season just yet. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m rejuvenated.
   

I wanted to just highlight a few Zach Wilson throws. I’ve thrown a fair amount of criticism his way…and I’d argue it was warranted. But as I’ve said time and time again, I’d rather be wrong than the Jets be bad. So if Zach wants to make me eat all of those critical words…well hell, tie a bib around this boy and pour him a glass of wine, because I’m ready to eat.

Touchdown to Allen Lazard