Zach Wilson's season is over, and perhaps his Jets career as well

FLORHAM PARK – Zach Wilson has thrown his last pass of the season and in all likelihood his Jets’ career.

Wilson remains in the NFL concussion protocol, according to Robert Saleh, and has been ruled out for Sunday’s season finale in New England. Trevor Siemian will start for the third straight game. Wilson suffered the injury in the first half of the Jets’ Dec. 17 loss in Miami.

The Jets are expected to move on from Wilson this offseason. They would like to trade him, but he may not have a lot of value. Wilson is owed $5.5 million guaranteed and has failed to live up to expectations of being the No. 2 overall pick in 2021.

Saleh contends Wilson has a bright future in the NFL, but it doesn’t sound like it will be with the Jets.

“We’ll see,” Saleh said before practice Wednesday. “It’s all things that we’re going to have to talk about once the season is over. Whether it’s here or somewhere else, I believe he’s going to have a hell of a career.”

The Jets quarterback room will look very different next year.

Aaron Rodgers, who tore his left Achilles tendon in Week 1, will be back running the offense. The Jets will try to add a veteran backup this time. The possibilities include Gardner Minshew, Jacoby Brissett or Ryan Tannehill.

The Jets also could draft or try to trade for a young quarterback to watch and learn from Rodgers, like they wanted Wilson to do. Rodgers, 40, said he intends to play at least two more seasons.

Wilson’s time in the NFL has been a disappointment. In 34 games, he’s thrown 23 touchdown passes and 25 interceptions. He also was benched three times.

This season, Wilson completed a career-best 60.1% of his passes with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions.

“I thought he had a great OTAs, great training camp,” Saleh said. “I thought he battled. He fought, he’s a fighter. He really is. There’s things that I know he wishes he could have back. I know there’s a lot of things that he improved on. Some things were out of his control.

“I’ve said it and I’ll say it again. I think he’s going to have a long career in this league.”

The Jets never thought they would have to rely on Wilson this year. They hoped this would be a developmental year for Wilson. That plan blew up when Rodgers tore his left Achilles tendon four snaps into the season.

Wilson started the next nine games. He was removed from a 32-6 loss in Buffalo and replaced by Tim Boyle. Wilson was demoted to the Jets’ No. 3/emergency quarterback. After Boyle and Siemian struggled to move the offense the next two games, Saleh went back to Wilson.

Reports surfaced that Wilson was “reluctant” to step back in because he didn’t want to get hurt since he’s not a part of the Jets’ future. Wilson refuted that. Another report said Saleh told Wilson when he benched him that he would trade him in the offseason. Saleh wouldn’t address that report at the time.

Wilson is not required to speak while he’s injured. When he was asked about his future with the Jets last month, he said, “It’s a thing you talk about later once the season is over.”

He matured and grew from last season, but he still didn’t consistently show that he could be a franchise quarterback. Wilson is not totally to blame for that.

The Jets mishandled Wilson’s situation from the beginning. They gave him the keys to the franchise. There was no quarterback competition and very little experience in the QB room.

They opened camp with Wilson, Mike White and James Morgan – three players who hadn’t taken an NFL snap. The Jets later brought in Josh Johnson and traded for Joe Flacco in the middle of the season.

The Jets have admitted they could have done things differently.

“It’s all hindsight,” Saleh said. “You wish you would have probably given him that first year. We’ve all said that and we’ve been pretty vocal about that. We were hoping to get that this year and give him that one year to watch Aaron play football and learn and grow, with all the different things that come with this scheme.

“It’s unfortunate four plays in what happened, happened, but I think he’s made tremendous improvements from a year ago. I do. I think he has, it’s just an unfortunate series of events that occurred.”

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.