Coach Robert Saleh recently complained about the instant-coffee nature of the NFL. Regardless, quarterback Zach Wilson is already feeling like a stale, room-temperature cup of joe for the Jets.
Wilson, back from a hiatus aimed at allowing him to “reset” his career, set offensive football back by a couple of decades on Thursday night with a lackluster performance against the Jaguars, in a game the Jets desperately needed to win, in order to keep their playoff hopes from becoming “win the last two and hope for a ton of help.” Wilson’s uninspired performance feels like the final nail in the two-year coffin of the second overall pick’s career in New York.
Even before he returned to the starting lineup after a broken rib sidelined Mike White, it seemed as if the Jets were hoping to maintain face and/or salvage trade value for Wilson. Based on two games played only four days apart in which Wilson did more good than bad, it’s hard to imagine the Jets getting anything of significance for his contract from another team.
Wilson has fully-guaranteed salaries of $3.855 million in 2023 and $5.453 million in 2024. While that’s not much to pay for a quality quarterback, even a non-starter, it’s hard to imagine anyone embracing Wilson at this point.
That said, there’s always a coach or G.M. who believes that a player who was highly regarded coming out of college, as Wilson was, can be fixed. And maybe someone will take a flier on Wilson for 2023. But the Jets have lost significant leverage over the last two games, potentially forcing them to pay a significant chunk of Wilson’s salary in order to get something more than a conditional seventh-round pick for Wilson.
He has, by all appearances, lost the locker room and the fan base. And while Jets fans can be fickle and unforgiving, the Jets knew that when they used the second overall pick in 2021 to get him. They knew the pressure would be significant, that the expectations would be sky-high. They knew Wilson would have to deliver sooner than later to justify the faith necessarily shown in him by virtue of the decision to make him the No. 2 overall pick.
It was hardly a reach by the Jets. He was regarded as a can’t-miss prospect, a sure-fire top-two selection. There was little doubt the Jets would take him, and none of the voices currently clamoring for his ouster were saying “what the hell?” when it became obvious that it would be Trevor Lawrence No. 1 and Wilson No. 2, with the biggest draft-day mystery being which other quarterback the 49ers would take, after trading up to No. 3.
But like every other college player who plays well enough to be regarded, on paper, as a great NFL player, no one knows what he’ll do until he gets there. The ceiling always resides somewhere between “can’t play at this level” and Canton. There’s only one way to find out where that ceiling is -- line him up against NFL-caliber talent and see what happens.
In hindsight, should the Jets have realized that the bar would have been too high for a team that continues to look for its next Joe Namath? Probably. The two they drafted in round one before Wilson (Mark Sanchez and Sam Darnold) didn’t pan out. The Jets could have dangled the second overall pick to another team that loved Wilson, and the Jets could have gotten someone like, say, linebacker Micah Parsons.
Same as with Wilson, however, no one truly knew what Parson would be until he put on an NFL uniform and competed against NFL talent. That’s the maddening beauty of the draft. It’s a complete and total crapshoot, notwithstanding all of the resources devoted to the scouting of college players, by every NFL team.
Through it all, it comes down to one basic reality. Shit happens. And for the Jets and Wilson, shit has happened. The question now becomes whether they double down (or triple down) in an effort to make chicken salad, or whether they admit their error and move on.
Then there’s the possibility that a fresh start will be the wake-up call Wilson needs, to become the player everyone thought he would be. That would make it even worse for the Jets, if the bucket of ice water dumped on his head via trading Wilson for peanuts or simply cutting him loose finally propels him to become the player he was supposed to be.
The Jets are not the first and hardly the last to deal with a situation like this. As the offseason approaches, what they choose to do with Wilson will become one of the most intriguing stories to watch, throughout the entire league.
And, yes, jobs could end up riding on how they resolve it.
They may be tempted, in the end, to keep him around as the backup and hope that he transmogrifies into a franchise quarterback without being sent to a new area code. The question then becomes whether the team’s fear that he’ll become the guy they hoped he would be elsewhere supersedes the likely inclination to admit their mistake and move on.
Regardless, it’s already become clear that it was indeed a mistake. Whatever the reasons, and there are surely more than one (not all of which are Wilson’s fault), it’s not working for Wilson with the Jets. Whatever they choose to do, they need to forget the past and focus on the future. Even if that means assuming the risk that Wilson will react to the indignity of being dumped by the team that drafted him by becoming for some other team the player the Jets had hoped he would be for them.
Sometimes, the only good decision is to cut the cord and move on. Even if that triggers Wilson to reach his full potential elsewhere, it’s become obvious he’ll likely never realize it with the Jets.