Garrett Wilson’s stats in 2023 were close to his first season when he won offensive rookie of the year honors. Still, the Jets receiver considers it a lost season.
The Jets lost Aaron Rodgers on the fourth play of the first game and then went on to lose 10 of 17 games.
Wilson calls it “the worst year” of his 23 years.
“I felt like I had to get my feet back under me, my head right,” Wilson said Wednesday, via Antwan Staley of the New York Daily News. “Improve on some of the things I wanted to improve on before we got back here. Being a little stronger, playing at a high weight.
“Just disconnect a little bit when you have your time to spend with family, spend with love ones and people that care about you. You’ve got to embrace it. You’ve got to go do it and see the world. I’m blessed to be in this position, so I want to reap some of the benefits when I have the time, and I feel like that’s the only way to go about it. When you get that opportunity to disconnect, you’ve got to do it so you can reconnect when the time comes.”
Wilson not only is wearing a new number, switching from 17 to 5, which was the number he wore at Ohio State, but according to Staley, Wilson is noticeably slimmer than the 192 pounds he played at last season.
After playing with five starting quarterbacks not named Rodgers his first two seasons, Wilson hopes to have Rodgers all season this season. If that happens, Wilson should have a career year.
Jets coach Robert Saleh said Wilson just has to “continue the maturation process.”
“He’s been phenomenal his first two years, but Year 3 is when they learn the balance between their newfound fame, the money in their bank account, the social media stuff, the branding, the family part of it and the football part of it,” Saleh said. “They learn how to balance all of that, so they keep the main thing the main thing, which is being a great football player.
“Garrett comes from a great background, great family and he’s always had his head on straight. I think just going into year 3 knowing the game the way he knows it now, I think sky’s the limit for him.”
