Coordinator Mike LaFleur and QB Zach Wilson making progress for Jets

This Jets season was all about the growth of young players and some young coaches, rookies in their positions and roles. Zach Wilson and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur may have shown the most growth and development since Week 1.

This is a very good thing for the Jets.

After Sunday’s finale in Buffalo, the Jets will enter the offseason needing to improve in all areas. It will be critical for them to eventually have the type of dominant defense Robert Saleh ran in San Francisco that got the 49ers to a Super Bowl.

Quarterback play, however, is the most important thing in the NFL. When the quarterback feels comfortable with his play-caller and loves the system, good things can happen.

"I really am enjoying the offense," Wilson said. "I brag about it to my old BYU coaches and my parents, how much I enjoy being a part of this system. Just what we’re doing as a team is on the right track."

Wilson has markedly cut down on his turnovers since the start of the season (he has none in the last four games). He’s making quicker decisions and his footwork has improved. He also has been engineering first-quarter touchdown drives, which wasn’t the case earlier.

LaFleur, a first-time coordinator, has opened up his playbook more. He’s running more gadget and trick plays and gotten more creative. It has kept defenses off balance and made the Jets tougher to defend and more fun to watch.

Wilson is "really looking forward" to Year 2 in the offense and with LaFleur.

"I really just feel like the offense really makes sense as far as what we’re trying to do," Wilson said. "Coach LaFleur, he understands me very well as far as my skill set, what I bring and the best way for me to learn and go through things. I feel like our relationship is just going to keep getting better.

"He’s done an amazing job. I feel like he’s probably learned a lot this year as well. It’s cool to go through this whole process together. I think it’s just going to get better with time."

Wilson certainly has gotten more comfortable since his struggles early in the season, when the coaches were telling him to play boring football to cut down on mistakes. Wilson evolved, figuring out what was expected of him and what he needed to do. He looks like a much different and more confident quarterback now.

Wilson told his coaches that he needed to play more freely. They understood and agreed. LaFleur told Wilson that he needs to be more aggressive in certain areas and needs to use his athleticism and run more when the opportunity is there. Wilson has.

The growth has been evident all the way around, from the quarterback to the coordinator to the offense as a whole.

The Jets are far from being a team that can put up 35 or 40 points. Wilson has to improve his completion percentage and general manager Joe Douglas needs to give him more weapons. But the Jets went from averaging 13.3 points the first six weeks of the season to 22.3 the last three.

Based on what he showed at BYU, the Jets had confidence that Wilson could make every throw from every arm angle and would excel as an off-script playmaker. They saw him as the perfect fit for what LaFleur runs, the West Coast offense that uses plenty of pre-snap movement and the outside zone blocking scheme.

LaFleur adopted what he learned from his brother — Packers coach Matt LaFleur — and from working with Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan. Mike LaFleur took some heat early when the offense was flat and predictable and the running game was nonexistent, but that’s all changed.

"He’s grown," said Saleh, who is closing out his first season as an NFL head coach. "I think we all have, including myself. Mike’s done such a really nice job, him and his staff — from the run game and really starting to create an identity, all the pre-snap motion and movement. The players have evolved.

"He’s still not even scratched the surface of where I think he’s going to go with regards to really forming, taking what he’s learned his whole life from Kyle, his brother and Sean and morphing this into his system. He’s already kind of taken that step and he’s going to continue to grow. It’s been fun to watch everybody in this building."

For LaFleur and his staff, which includes first-time running backs coach Taylor Embree and receivers coach Miles Austin, this season has been about getting more comfortable and evolving. It’s only the beginning.

"The collaboration with our staff has gotten better and better," LaFleur said. "It was going to be a jelling process for our whole staff and then getting that worded correctly to the players on a day-to-day basis. Proud of the way those guys have grown and learned.

"I can’t wait to see how those guys continue in this offense. Year 1 to Year 2 for players is huge, but just as important is how coaches can take the next step to get those players to be the best they possibly can be."