New York City has a population of nearly nine million, but it’s debatable whether any among that number would be willing to defend Zach Wilson or the team’s hierarchy. On Monday Joe Namath, the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl with the team, became the latest person to go on the attack after the Jets announced they are sticking with Wilson, who was once the future of the franchise but is now the most popular target of frustrated fans. “I wouldn’t keep him,” said Namath during an interview on The Michael Kay Show on 98.7 ESPN New York.
I couldn’t disagree more. I’m a UCF fan, I’m very aware of Bortles abilities. He is absolutely not as good as Brissett, there’s a reason he retired while still relatively young for a QB. There’s a reason he was behind Trevor Siemian on the QB depth chart in Denver.
The only part about Wilson that was better than Allen in that game was he threw less turnovers. Allen’s stats were better in pretty much every other way (and that’s with him throwing the ball nearly twice as much because they couldn’t run the ball against the Jets D). And two of the INTs were unforced but one wasn’t, and there’s also the fact that Allen felt the need to play hero ball for a reason, they couldn’t get anything going on the ground and they weren’t moving the ball much in short plays either. To the point that Diggs was getting visibly frustrated (which partially led to one of the unforced turnovers because Allen tried to force him the ball). But I agree, the Jets were kind of gifted that win, but that’s also with the Bills stacking the box because the didn’t fear Wilson in the air (and he didn’t prove them wrong).
I think you’re thinking about this wrong. I don’t think if you run the same plays with a different QB that you’d get better results. I’m saying if you have someone that can be a game manager and set the protections correctly and get 4 to 5 yard passes when you need to, defenses can’t just key in on the run and then Breece Hall and Dalvin Cook will be able to get some runs without being contacted in the back field every play. But Wilson can’t do that, he overthrows screens and he makes terrible decisions that put the ball in danger for now reason. It’s like having Jameis Winston without the occasional explosive play.
Guys aren’t just one level. Bortles played great football to lead the Jags to competency. When he stopped being competent, so did the team. He was far better than Jacoby has ever been, let alone now, when the Jaguars were a fringe contender.
All three of Allen’s throws, and numerous other decisions to throw his body around and just generously be ten steps beyond reckless, were terrible. They weren’t even sort of caused by anything the Jets did. He just randomly melts down a couple games a year.
Nobody is stacking the box less with any backup QB in the league. Jacoby doesn’t get you into plays that magically beat a stacked box. He doesn’t magically make the worst line in the division capable of creating run lanes or pass protecting. He doesn’t give you a play caller who knows what a NFL offense is. They’re still a bottom 5 offense with Brissett. At least Wilson has the arm to force some balls to their only needle moving receiver.
Wilson isn’t a good QB. But current Brissett is every bit as bad.
I guess we’ll have to just agree to disagree. Ultimately I don’t think they have a great chance either way, but I think that chance is 0 with Wilson whereas a slightly more unknown quantity (as in, we haven’t seen them on this exact team) at least is something different. If it turns out to also be 0, you really didn’t lose all that much. It just seems 100% worth the risk to me with a team this good. Literally everything but the QB and the OL to a certain extent is excellent.