In my piece from Saturday I mentioned that only four Jets quarterbacks--all taken in the first round--have led the Jets in passing for five or more seasons: Joe Namath, Richard Todd, Ken O'Brien, and Chad Pennington. Of those four, only Namath was thrust into the starting job immediately and expected to play every game; Todd and O'Brien didn't start near-complete seasons until their second year, and Pennington didn't until his third year.
Additionally, the last two quarterbacks we've drafted in the first round and did immediately expect to start, Darnold and Sanchez, had developmental problems that became painfully evident immediately, in the case of the former, or eventually, in the case of the latter.
My point being, maybe not putting the onus of decades of expectations on a 22 year old won't completely and totally mess him up. If White plays against Buffalo, which he should, and shines, that's not a bad thing at all. It's not a lost year of development. If anything, aging Wilson a year might be what he actually needs--his rawness was well-documented coming out of the draft, and making him play every game even if he doesn't show improvement will actually hurt him more than anything else; see Darnold. People saying he should start ASAP for the rest of the season fundamentally misunderstand the sport. One game and a fraction are not enough for Wilson to glean anything super meaningful from White's performance. The more film of White that Wilson has to study, which he's a notorious glutton for, the better for his development.
I should probably write my own piece on this at some point, because boy howdy I have more thoughts on it than I thought I would, but this is just my immediate reactions to this piece.
In my piece from Saturday I mentioned that only four Jets quarterbacks--all taken in the first round--have led the Jets in passing for five or more seasons: Joe Namath, Richard Todd, Ken O'Brien, and Chad Pennington. Of those four, only Namath was thrust into the starting job immediately and expected to play every game; Todd and O'Brien didn't start near-complete seasons until their second year, and Pennington didn't until his third year.
Additionally, the last two quarterbacks we've drafted in the first round and did immediately expect to start, Darnold and Sanchez, had developmental problems that became painfully evident immediately, in the case of the former, or eventually, in the case of the latter.
My point being, maybe not putting the onus of decades of expectations on a 22 year old won't completely and totally mess him up. If White plays against Buffalo, which he should, and shines, that's not a bad thing at all. It's not a lost year of development. If anything, aging Wilson a year might be what he actually needs--his rawness was well-documented coming out of the draft, and making him play every game even if he doesn't show improvement will actually hurt him more than anything else; see Darnold. People saying he should start ASAP for the rest of the season fundamentally misunderstand the sport. One game and a fraction are not enough for Wilson to glean anything super meaningful from White's performance. The more film of White that Wilson has to study, which he's a notorious glutton for, the better for his development.
I should probably write my own piece on this at some point, because boy howdy I have more thoughts on it than I thought I would, but this is just my immediate reactions to this piece.