Jets Seem To Be Changing Their Tone
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported early Sunday morning that “unless Wilson clicks with the offense tonight and throws for 300 yards, it’s apparent his time as the starter may be closing out.”
More from a Jets source, per Russini: "Something needs to change, or it's going to cost jobs."
The Jets signed QB Trevor Siemian to the practice squad earlier this week so it didn’t take long for New York to change their stance on their current quarterback situation.
Going Down With The Ship?
Jets head coach Robert Saleh has been receiving some criticism lately for his stance on Zach Wilson, and rightfully so.
Before this week, Saleh has been nothing but a Wilson apologist in terms of not holding his third-year quarterback accountable for his play. After regaining the starting role in the way that he did, I understand not wanting to crush Zach’s confidence entirely, but statements like these tend to rub people the wrong way.
From a fan and especially a players perspective, hearing this from your head coach after watching how Zach has so much trouble moving the ball is extremely frustrating. This was easily one of Saleh’s worst press conferences during his Jets tenure. Last week the defense only allowed 13 points to the Patriots offense and the Jets lost that game 15-10. If that's not on the offense and the quarterback specifically, then I don't know what is.
Jets Seeing The Light
It took New York adding Trevor Siemian to the QB room for Saleh to finally change his stance on the matter.
I had hopes that the reason behind Saleh sticking with Zach was largely due to the fact that Wilson was essentially the only “playable” quarterback on the roster. We would’ve seen new levels of “same old Jets” if Tim Boyle or Randall Cobb saw time as the signal caller, even though I’m not sure how much worse it can get right now.
On another note, it says a lot about how the Jets actually feel about Zach Wilson if it only takes signing Siemian to the practice squad for the head coach to flip the script on how he approaches the media.
I understand Saleh and the Jets have been put in a tough position because nobody expected Aaron Rodgers would be out for the season after only playing four snaps in New York. But that’s exactly it, no one was prepared.
So Who’s To Blame?
The Jets made such an effort to pivot off of Zach Wilson because they knew after last season that they could become a playoff team with some stability at the quarterback position. New York clearly did not have the faith that Wilson was going to be able to make the steps necessary to turn things around in a year's time, hence trading for Aaron Rodgers.
Injuries happen in the NFL, and while you don’t expect them to happen in the way that they did for the Jets this year, you have to be prepared. Hindsight is 20/20, but New York should have added a viable backup heading into this season. Instead they went with Tim Boyle at QB3, making Zach the QB2, and look where that has got them.
We’ll see how things play out tonight vs. Chiefs, but assuming nothing changes, we might be as close as we’ve been to a quarterback change in New York.
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