Jets quarterback Mike White cleared by doctors to start Sunday
Jets quarterback Mike White before a game against the Detroit Lions at MetLife Stadium on Dec. 18, 2022. Credit: Lee S. Weissman/Lee S. Weissman
Mike White is back and will lead the offense Sunday in the Jets’ biggest regular-season game in seven years.
The Jets got the good news Monday that White has been cleared for contact after missing the past two games with fractured ribs. Robert Saleh named White the starter for the final two games of the season and the playoffs, if the Jets make it.
Zach Wilson, who started the past two games, will be inactive Sunday in Seattle. Wilson, the No. 2 overall pick last year, has played his final snap of the season and maybe his Jets career. Joe Flacco will back up White.
The fact that the Jets (7-8) are turning to White to jump-start the offense with a playoff spot attainable speaks volumes about their lack of belief in Wilson right now.
“I thought Mike had been doing a great job,” Saleh said. “I thought he did a great job moving the offense, sustaining drives, getting first downs, much more efficient. The offense was running with some good efficiency. It’s a great opportunity for him.”
For the Jets to snap their 11-year playoff drought, they need to win their last two games and hope New England loses once. The Jets end the season in Miami in what could be a winner-take-all game. The Dolphins are clinging to a one-game lead for the last AFC wild-card spot, but the Jets own the head-to-head tiebreaker after beating Miami earlier this season.
The Jets have left themselves no margin for error. After dropping their last four games, they needed help over the weekend to stay in the AFC playoff race — and they got it. Now they are leaning on White to help them beat Seattle and Miami.
“It’ll be good,” linebacker C.J. Mosley said. “He’s proven that he can be a winner in this league. He’s proven he can be a winner in the system. Obviously, the guys trust him. There’s a spark when he’s on the field.
“He’s just a guy that’s going to go out there and try to get it done by any means necessary. Any time you have a player of that caliber or a player with that mentality, especially at the quarterback position, you just look forward to seeing what he’s going to go out there and do.”
White, who was the third-string quarterback earlier this season, started three games before suffering fractured ribs in Buffalo in Week 14. The Jets went 1-2 in his three starts, but the offense moved better than it had in any other stretch this season.
The Jets averaged 420.3 yards and scored 21.7 points in the three games. In Wilson’s last three starts, they averaged 222.3 yards and 7.7 points and failed to score a touchdown in two of them. Wilson was benched in Thursday’s 19-3 loss to Jacksonville and replaced by practice-squad quarterback Chris Streveler in the third quarter.
Saleh said Wilson still “has a future here,” but in the present and the foreseeable future, it’s White’s job.
White will be the Jets’ QB1 for the remainder of the season, “barring injury,” Saleh said. That’s as far as he would go. He refused to say whether the Jets are open to White being the Jets’ long-term answer at quarterback.
“One day at a time,” Saleh said. “We’re always going to do what’s best for the organization, but there’s still a lot of information to gather.”
White left the Buffalo game twice after hard hits and showed incredible toughness by coming back both times. He was taken to a hospital after the game for CT scans before being allowed to fly.
White believed he could have played the following week and sought multiple medical opinions hoping he would be cleared. The Jets’ doctors ultimately had the final say.
They finally cleared him Monday, and the Jets are giving him the ball in a really big spot. “I think he’ll handle it really well,” tight end Tyler Conklin said. “Earlier in the year when he got that opportunity, he handled it really well. I think right now with the way things are looking and just knowing him as a person, how hard he prepares, how hard he works, he’s going to be ready to take advantage of this opportunity he has in front of him.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
