Before I continue this piece, I’ll submit my first piece of evidence:
In a horrendous display of football, the New York Jets faced off against the New England Patriots on Sunday in Foxborough.
The game was gridlocked at 3-3 for a majority of the game, scoring opportunities more scant than affordable Taylor Swift tickets.
With the game approaching a potential overtime period to prolong the ineptitude, Patriots’ returner Marcus Jones scored a game-winning punt return to seal the game for New England, 10-3.
In a full 60-minute performance, Jets QB Zach Wilson completed only 9 of 22 passes for a paltry 77 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions, despite his best efforts.
Per his postgame interview, Wilson repeatedly lamented that the wind was a hinderance to his ability to pass, so I’d like to enter my second piece of evidence.
Another QB I am not high on is Mac Jones, and there have even been rumblings that even New England isn’t high on Jones.
With that said, Jones completed all but 4 of his 27 passes on Sunday for 246 yards in the exact same conditions as Wilson and with lesser receiving talent.
In deference to Wilson, neither QB really got a lot of help on the ground, but especially Wilson, who ended up being the leading rusher for the Jets on Sunday with 26 yards.
Not great!
His starting tackle, Mekhi Becton, has also been out for some time with no signs of returning this season, and just a few weeks ago, he lost starting RB Breece Hall for the year to an ACL injury.
But, even with those guys on the field with him, Wilson has still been very bad.
Since returning to the lineup in week 4 against the Steelers, Wilson has only two losses to his name this season, both against the Patriots!
For most, a 5-2 record through 7 games played for a QB appears to be very competitive and formidable, but the wins are misleading.
In that first game back against Pittsburgh, Wilson threw 36 passes and only completed half of them to his team while completing an additional couple of passes to the new Steel Curtain.
The Jets still pulled off a 24-20 victory in that game in spite of their QB actively trying to throw them out of the game.
The Jets played Miami the next week, and Wilson probably had his best game of the season, going 14/21 for 210 yards with no TD or INTs in a 40-17 win.
Yes, in a game the Jets scored 40 points, the quarterback was responsible for just one score: a rushing touchdown, part of his four carries on the day for two total yards.
This was against a Miami team that started third-string QB Skylar Thompson who left the game with an injury, leading to the return of the hobbled Teddy Bridgewater.
Wilson’s next game was against Green Bay where the BYU product only threw 18 passes, completing 10 of them, for a miniscule 110 yards in a 27=10 win over the Pack.
Despite more passes and completions than the previous week, Wilson had an arguably worse game against the Broncos, slinging the pebble for a weak 121 yards on 26 attempts.
No matter how you slice it, it is universally repulsive for a QB to be under five yards per attempt. Just no excuse for that.
Yet, the Jets managed to pull through, beating the Broncos 16-9.
Wilson attempted to show off his abilities against New England in week 8, throwing 41 passes for 355 yards and 2 TDs through the air.
Problem being, he only completed 20 of those passes and chucked another trio of passes to Patriots defense.
The 2nd-year QB returned the following week against the formidable Buffalo Bills and actually helped them earn a statement victory against their division rivals.
Granted, he still lost a fumble in the 20-17 triumph, but he showed signs of being the efficient prospect he was projected to be, going 18/25 with 154 yards and a TD.
Then, the very windy game in Foxborough on Sunday.
Through seven games this season, Zach Wilson is on par for another season of completing close to 56% of his passes, which is last among NFL starters.
He has more wins this season than he does passing TDs, and he has as many wins as he does interceptions.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, he’s only averaging 182 yards per game this year, a 3-yard bump from last year.
That is less than Pats’ backup QB Bailey Zappe, a 4th-round rookie QB out of Western Kentucky. Nothing against Zappe or WKU, but with the amount of hype that surrounded Wilson, it’s pathetic that he’s getting outperformed by Zappe.
But, let’s go even deeper.
Wilson’s win against Pittsburgh was against their QB carousel and anemic offense as well as facing their defense without TJ Watt.
As I previously mentioned, Skylar Thompson started for the Dolphins before suffering a thumb injury. Hard to have a good defensive performance when your offense keeps putting you back on the field.
The Jets won their next game against the Packers who have experienced an offensive crisis this season, and playing against the buzzsaw that is the Jets’ defense only exacerbated their struggles.
Then, they played the Broncos…yeah.
Wilson put up a modest game against the Bills, but even then, their secondary is a patchwork at best. Wilson still only threw for 154 yards on 25 attempts!
Barely 6 yards per attempt!
Despite averaging a little over 3 yards per attempt this weekend against the Pats, Wilson refused to take any accountability for his performance.
You can search on Twitter for literally any other QBs’ postgame presser after a bad loss in recent weeks and see their maturity.
You have to be a sniveling, groveling little troll to throw 22 times in an NFL game and not accept a single shred of remorse for your performance.
It’s year 2 of Wilson’s career, and all they’ve done is surround him with more and more talent, especially at the receiver position.
And, he’s still completing the same amount of passes for the same amount of yards.
If his attitude and his performance can’t make a considerable leap before the end of the season, I’d consider trading him away for a seasoned QB.
The Jets cannot under any circumstances burn it down for another young QB.
The last good QB they were able to develop was Chad Pennington, and he couldn’t stay on the field long enough to keep the team afloat.
Since then, they’ve brought in Kellen Clemons, Mark Sanchez, Geno Smith, Sam Darnold, and now Zach Wilson.
Clemons never truly developed, and as a result, he never stepped in for a starting role with the Gang Green even though they spent a 2nd-round pick on him.
Sanchez “led” the Jets to consecutive AFC title game berths in 2009 and 2010, but his play never improved, leading to the deterioration of the team and his career.
Geno Smith was brought in and never really given a chance to succeed because they rushed his development.
While Smith looked lost for most of his pro career, he’s in the midst of a resurgence in 2022 with the Seahawks, showing flashes of the passer he was at West Virginia.
Darnold, much like Smith before him, got rushed into the lineup after being drafted before he could legally drink. He became the youngest starting QB since the merger!
The USC gunslinger also had two head coaches and two different OCs during his time in New York, which I’d imagine would be difficult to adjust to in addition to adapting your style of play to the pro game.
Now, we have Zach Wilson.
Wilson was a three-star recruit in high school before arriving to BYU where he started a majority of his time at the school.
After two middling seasons in 2018 and 2019, Wilson’s junior year in 2020 saw his production explode, throwing for 3700 yards and 33 TDs with 73.5% completion percentage over a 12-game schedule.
It’s important to note that BYU is an independent school and played 12 games during a Covid-plagued 2020 season where most conferences played abbreviated schedules or moved their season to the spring to avoid the spread of the virus.
Many key players around the NCAA opted out of the 2020 season and took a redshirt, including Heisman hopeful JaMarr Chase, so most teams weren’t what I’d consider at full strength.
Wilson’s schedule was also fairly lackluster.
Navy, Troy, Louisiana Tech, UTSA, Houston, Texas State, Western Kentucky, Boise State, North Alabama, San Diego State, and UCF. All wins.
They also lost a nailbiter to Coastal Carolina late in the season.
If you remove Coastal Carolina from the equation, their opponents’ combined record was 45-51, and none of those opponents are Power 5 schools.
Wilson should’ve never been a first-round pick in the first place, but people placed insane projections on the kid, and he’s taken all of them to heart.
The guy is arrogant and privileged; that’s all there is to it.
He’s shown no signs of improvement as a leader, as a player, and arguably none as a human being since signing with New York, and with an imposing defense ready to win now, the Jets need to make a choice this offseason.
Continue to develop Zach Wilson or bring in a more seasoned option.
The Wide World of Dirt 
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