Zach Wilson is taking a savage beating in the media this week. Like, especially brutal. Yeah, he's playing like garbage, but the negative attention he's currently attracting seems disproportionate to the usual dead horses the media likes to attack. To borrow a term from Wilson's generation, it seems a bit extra.
It's almost like everyone is extra mad at him because this was time that was supposed to be spent talking about Aaron Rodgers. These segments were supposed to be about how Rodgers has the Jets looking like contenders for the first time in decades or how Rodgers might be washed up and the Jets made a mistake going all-in on him. We were supposed to have quotes. Viral clips from Pat McAfee appearances. Tense or weird postgame press conference moments involving the vaunted New York City Media.
Instead we have what has thus far been an overrated defense and a bad offense, which means that people are stuck watching boring games. And they aren't going away. Three of the Jets' next six games are primetime games. Four of eight if you count their standalone Black Friday game against the Dolphins. What better way to try out that 80" television you paid $100 for than to invite a life-sized Zach Wilson into your home to get the shit kicked out of him on your living room wall?
You know who must be the happiest about Zach Wilson's current predicament? Daniel Jones, the starting quarterback of the New York Giants who has thrown the exact same number of touchdowns (2) and interceptions (4) this season as Wilson and managed to take even more sacks (12 vs. 8). You know where the Giants are right now? The basement of their division with a 1-2 record. Any year where Aaron Rodgers didn't sign with the Jets and Daniel Jones is the one taking all this shit.
And if you want to give Jones a break, how about some of the other struggling quarterbacks? Yes, Wilson has the worst completion percentage in the NFL at 52.4 percent, but he's not that far behind Jordan Love (53.1 percent) or Joe Burrow (55.4 percent).
Before the season Justin Fields was the recipient of many votes of confidence from the media. He has thrown the same name number of picks as Wilson and just one more touchdown while completing an also-very-bad 58 percent of his passes. The Bears are 0-3.
But here sits Wilson, who has already suffered through two seasons with the Jets where it's clear he's not a star quarterback in the making. After this season he has just one year remaining on his four-year, $35 million rookie deal and then he can go bounce around the league as reclamation project and then veteran backup. Unfortunately for everyone, we aren't there yet. So you have Joe Namath, a Hall of Famer who completed 46.8 percent of his passes during the postseason where he rode a Jets defense to fame and a Super Bowl ring, teeing off on Wilson who is stuck in an impossible situation.
The Jets should have done something the moment Rodgers went down. They should have traded for someone or signed someone. Anyone. They knew this was going to happen. They have had Wilson in the building since 2021, which is as long as Robert Saleh has been there. If this was going to work at all they would have seen a sign. They clearly haven't and yet Saleh is still going out there saying Wilson gives them their best chance to win, which he definitely doesn't. And we know that because it's all anyone is saying on television right now.
We get it. I'm sure Wilson gets it. The Jets actually might not get it, but at this point they aren't going to listen anyway. So there's really no reason to keep beating Wilson like a drum. The NFL is full of bad quarterbacks. Hell, the top pick in the 2023 Draft has already been sidelined and supplanted by Andy Dalton while the guy picked behind him may be emerging as an actual star. Feel free to focus on that and just leave the poor New York Jets quarterback alone. He's already suffered enough by being stuck with the New York Jets.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Leave Zach Wilson Alone.
