The Jets can help quarterback Zach Wilson by playing to his and the team’s strengths.
— Benched twice last season, stripped of his starting job in the offseason, quarterback Zach Wilson now has to save the New York Jets’ once-promising season from ruin. It truly is back to the future.
For months, the Jets have been talking about how much Wilson, the No. 2 overall pick in 2021, has learned from Aaron Rodgers. On Tuesday, coach Robert Saleh doubled down, saying Wilson is “[light]-years ahead of where he was last year.”
So can a quarterback with an 8-14 career record, with more interceptions (19) than touchdown passes (16), get the Jets where they want to go? Rodgers’ season-ending injury to his left Achilles, suffered in Monday night’s win over the Buffalo Bills, changes the entire dynamic.
“If you ride with him, you ride the run game, play-action and play good defense,” one AFC personnel director said of Wilson. “And just let him manage and facilitate.”
Another personnel executive said, “If any team is built to handle this — to [scheme] around the quarterback position — it’s the Jets. But they have to manage him right.”
A closer look at how it might unfold:
Strong supporting cast: People forget that Wilson won five of his first six starts last season, playing the role of game manager, but his performance — and that of the entire offense — took a dramatic decline when running back Breece Hall and guard Alijah Vera-Tucker suffered season-ending injuries in Week 7 against the Denver Broncos. The Jets were 5-2 with Hall and Vera-Tucker, 2-8 without them.
Hall and Vera-Tucker are back in the lineup.
