Jets' Zach Wilson narrative a mix of spin doctors and real doctors
Jets quarterback Zach Wilson (2) is sacked by Detroit Lions linebacker James Houston (59) during the second quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022, in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: AP/Seth Wenig
Everything the Jets have said about Zach Wilson since he returned to the starting lineup and everything they say about him as he continues in that role through at least Thursday’s game against the Jaguars should be heard and read through the following filter:
They have no choice in the matter.
They are at the mercy of the medical staff, and apparently the dozen or so other doctors Mike White has consulted in the past two weeks in an effort to either get back on the field or use up the funds in his health savings account before they disappear at the end of the calendar year.
That can be a frustrating position for a team and a coaching staff, especially in this case when the injured player seems to be walking around the locker room and out on the practice field showing few signs of discomfort … and even voicing his desire to play. There is no negotiating with MRI results, no urging on of the healing process. When it’s a quarterback, it makes that exponentially more irritating.
This situation with Wilson is on terrain much more delicate to navigate, though, not just because White’s ailment (rib injury) is relatively invisible but because it has implications for the franchise both in the short and long terms. There are elements of confidence and ego involved, not just among the players but those who selected Wilson with the second overall pick less than 15 months ago. They are all invested in him to varying degrees, some with their postseason hopes riding on his rapid development, others with their careers on the line.
It deals with a quarterback who was benched in November because he was unable to perform the simplest of skills required from his position (the extraordinary ones, for some strange reason, seem to come much more naturally to him) and who has returned to action not because he conquered his remedial curriculum but because the Jets had no other alternative.
(They could put Joe Flacco out there, yes, but we’ve seen that is not a real option at this point in his career.)
So the Jets are doing the only thing they can with Wilson as their quarterback. They are spinning it.
Head coaches have a lot of power in an organization when it comes to who plays and who doesn’t, but that’s only in regard to the healthy ones. Robert Saleh made his decision regarding the quarterback position last month. This decision has been made for him.
Since then Saleh has spoken about lowering expectations for Wilson with a comparison to “instant coffee.” On Tuesday, he gushed through a forced grin about how it was fun to see the team rally around Wilson and “feeding off him” in Sunday’s loss to the Lions, an observation that was difficult to confirm from the outside compared with the palpable energy White brought on the field with him in his three starts.
“He was on fire,” Saleh said of Wilson’s play, an insult to flames everywhere and a false alarm if ever there was one.
Injuries are part of the game, so when Breece Hall tore his ACL or Quinnen Williams’ calf acted up, it was easier to accept and move on with that next-man-up philosophy to which all NFL teams cling through the inevitable attrition of a season. Their backups do the best they can with everyone knowing those replacements will give their best but never measure up to the star they are replacing. Fans may be disheartened, but teams are trained to avoid the audible groan that fills the theater when the understudy in a Broadway show is announced right before the curtain rises.
“He was meant to be here for a reason,” linebacker C.J. Mosley said of Wilson, adding a convoluted claim that the benching improved Wilson’s confidence — “You can see it in his eyes” — even though confidence was never his shortcoming.
Added offensive lineman Duane Brown: “He had the attitude to go out and play, put his best foot forward, and whatever happens happens … We have to be better for him to succeed.”
All Saleh and the Jets can do at this point is try to paint the walls of their jail cell in as cheerful a color as possible. Whatever they say about Wilson is not only aimed at shaping public perception but at convincing the internal morale of the organization that this is going to work.
It may. The Jets did win games with Wilson at quarterback before his benching. Always remember, though: This is not Saleh’s decision to make. Nor is it the one he would make if he could. If it were, he would have said that. He has not.
Saleh spoke Tuesday about the balance of developing a young quarterback against the needs of a team otherwise poised to contend for a wild-card spot.
“There are 52 other guys on the roster plus the practice squad and scouts and coaches and everybody,” he said. “But no one is going to give up on someone just because it feels like it doesn’t show in Year 1 or Year 1. The quarterback position takes time.”
He said it as if defending this call to have Wilson leading the way for the time being is his.
That is a laughable, make-believe, false perspective, but like Wilson himself, it’s the only one currently available to the Jets.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
