The New York Jets May as Well Move on From Possible Bust Zach Wilson Before the End of the Season
How Mike White and Joe Flacco's performances make Zach Wilson look expendable before season's end.
Normally, it is stupid to believe that one game should define a player or a team‘s season. However, after Mike White threw three touchdown passes in the rain in the New York Jets’ Week 12 matchup against the Chicago Bears, the contrary might be the right course of action for the Jets.
As the first quarterback to throw for multiple touchdowns in a game since Week 8 and the first to throw multiple with no interceptions since Week 2, White not only saved the Jets‘ season but showed what a lousy and detrimental player Zach Wilson was. Wilson has played seven games all season but only threw four touchdown passes (while also throwing five interceptions). That quantity was only one touchdown better than White’s one-game total and worse than the five touchdown passes Joe Flacco threw in his only three games, which is less than 50% of the total games Wilson played.
To further highlight Wilson’s ineptitude versus his fellow quarterbacks, Flacco’s lone three opponents have allowed an average of 22.5 points per game. Wilson’s first three have allowed one point more (23.5). Yet, against those three, he only threw one touchdown versus two interceptions — and we wonder why Flacco was puzzled by his demotion to third string.
The past reaction from Flacco, recent euphoria around White, and report from Jay Glazer about Wilson losing his confidence after his demotion show how not fit he is to be worthy of a starting or reserve quarterback job.
Typically, you lose your confidence due to your performances and results not matching your abilities. Consequently, you do not absolve yourself from the problem but could lose your sense of self-worth and further doubt your abilities. Except when Wilson was asked if he let his defense down, he did not look like somebody who lost his confidence. Rather, he looked more like a smug person with delusions of grandeur or one practicing the Dunning-Kruger Effect in which he felt as if his competence or lack thereof never hurt his team.
Granted, Wilson may have experienced moments of self-disappointment before his benching, but a great athlete is usually never satisfied with his or her performance. Wilson is not known to say that he has to get better and cut down on mistakes despite his career completion percentage faring far below 60% and while his career interceptions keep exceeding his touchdown totals. Such benchmarks continue to appear in his second season, including his last-place 55.6% completion rate among quarterbacks who have thrown at least 150 passes in the 2022 regular season. Any rate below 60% will be unacceptable no matter what league or career stage a quarterback is in due to the passer-friendliness of Wilson’s professional era and his NCAA career rate equaling 67.6%.
What is worse is that he did not seem critical of himself after the Jets’ second of two losses to the New England Patriots, even if the conditions were greatly windy and his coaching staff is not comparable to ones of other quarterbacks. He completed just nine passes out of 22 attempts with an enviable supporting cast and after performing the way he has for his whole career. Rather than confirming a reporter’s question if he let his team’s defense down, he was better off saying that his performance let the team down.
If a person cannot care about his or her deficiencies in any way, that person will never improve. In retrospect, Wilson’s loss of confidence was likely due to his demotion instead of his pre-demotion performance.
Based on the recent success stories of Dak Prescott, Derek Carr, Taylor Heinicke, and other quarterbacks not picked in the first round, the New York Jets have to value production and competence over confirmation bias regarding talent. The Jets also have to learn from the mistakes and aftermaths of the Oakland Raiders and Chicago Bears when those two teams had issues with their respective one-time first-round quarterbacks, JaMarcus Russell and Rex Grossman. After both underachievers hindered their teams’ abilities to win and were respectively replaced by Jason Campbell and Kyle Orton, their original teams improved and ended their losing records.
In 2006, the Jacksonville Jaguars had a similar issue with Byron Leftwich in which the team was dissatisfied with his play and health and ultimately moved on to David Garrard. They made the playoffs in 2007 with Garrard starting. Lastly, based on Washington being most familiar with this trend, for every Heath Shuler, Jeff George, and Robert Griffin III (Note: Dwayne Haskins was not mentioned due to his tragically premature death), a Gus Frerotte, Tony Banks, and Kirk Cousins respectively took over to bring stability.
The Jets would likely improve with the same kinds of replacements as Wilson has held the team back from fulfilling its true potential. Most importantly, the Jets must think team-first rather than have someone who puts himself first. White’s likely team-first and mental approaches compensating for his halfway decent competence can help the Jets perform greatly. The team might even perform its best if it no longer has to think about Wilson. The only way to do that is for the Jets to put the second-year quarterback on IR or release him.
None of us would have ever predicted to see an underachiever comparable to Ryan Leaf or JaMarcus Russell again. Except, Wilson has now matched their incompetence no matter who was in his draft. He might become the biggest bust ever because of where he was picked and how his pre-NFL red flags were not one bit comparable to Leaf or Russell. Not being named captain at BYU and weighing 214 are no red flags like being an unprofessional interviewee, passing below 60%, having a poor work ethic, or weighing 300 pounds at the quarterback position.
Leaf and Russell had the latter concerns collectively and, as Wilson’s production has fallen far lower than his talent level while his pre-NFL concerns pale in comparison to the other two, the biggest NFL bust of all time could be him.