Intermittently, Zach Wilson is able to come out. He can’t consistently advance and hit open receivers, but every now and then his fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants quarterbacking rewards Jets fans with a rare gem. On Sunday, New York returned Wilson after benching him for the third time since being drafted. With the score tied at zero in the third quarter, Wilson rolled out of the pocket, eluded Texans pass rusher Jonathan Greenard and sent a beautiful spiral to a leaping Garrett Wilson. It’s a play that CJ Stroud makes consistently, but usually results in a Wilson incompletion or something more damaging.
In the midst of a bizarre week in which the the league’s most accurate kicker in history missed two kicks in a four-point loss, Joe Flacco passing for 300 yards and Justin Fields devouring the Detroit Lions, nothing stood out more than Zach Wilson beating Stroud. If you didn’t know any better, you’d assume Wilson was the seasoned vet running the electric offense that led the league in passing, not Stroud.
Instead, Stroud was helpless against the Jets’ stingy pass defense, while Wilson looked nothing like the quarterback benched for the worst backup of this millennium. He made Pro Day deep throws against live defenses, completed the easy throws the Houston defense gave him and made Stroud look like a bust.
After the Jets’ fifth win, Breece Hall summed up the Wilson experience best in his postgame media availability.
“He’s been the same guy all season. It’s just that sometimes you can make the plays and sometimes you can’t.” Hall explained. “That’s the game we play, so you know, it was good to see him running around today and feeling really confident. He took some risky throws and made them.”
Three seasons into his Jets stint, risk-taking is the most reliable aspect of Wilson’s game. Every week, Wilson aims a crossbow at an apple over the Jets’ heads. Unfortunately, that risk has often come with a single arrow through the hearts of Jets fans, without the upside. Jameis Winston is a prolific risk-reward passer who will have you shaking your head one moment and in awe the next. Wilson’s self-sabotage just drove Jets Nation crazy.
We should have learned by now not to confuse a Wilson Mirage game with the start of a trend. The last time that mistake was made was after his valiant effort in a loss to Kansas City. Every few weeks he loads a ghost bomb. Then he will stink up the room for a month and make everyone miserable.
The Jets’ defense collectively frustrated Stroud, which isn’t all that surprising. Despite their offensive surge, the Jets defense has always brought its A-game. The Jets have put starters, emergency replacements and All-Pros in steel tongs. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert and Stroud have all lost their lives to their offenses at the hands of the Jets.
The craziest part of what could have been the Jets season is the hardest part to accept. Even after Aaron Rodgers tore his ACL, irrational hope filled the Meadowlands air that Rodgers would be a medical miracle man, return after four months and lead the Jets to the postseason.
Nathaniel Hackett didn’t ask his quarterbacks to be heroes. Unfortunately, their starters all sabotaged their heroic efforts. If a high school quarterback had been off the street, the Jets would have been fully in the playoffs today. If Wilson had been able to orchestrate a league-average offense that would have been a competition average 22 points in their losses this season to the Patriots, Chiefs, Raiders and Falcons, the Jets would have won at least three of four and were one drive away from beating the Chiefs. At worst they would be 8-5 or 9-4 at best, instead of 5-8.
In multiple appearances this season, Wilson failed to lead touchdown drives, or worse, committed a turnover or two while failing to advance the ball. Saleh could have brought Mark Sanchez or Tim Tebow out of retirement today and either would have been more valuable to the Jets than Wilson after Rodgers went down. When the pressure to perform was on, Wilson consistently set himself on fire. Until today, he had a negative touchdown-to-interception ratio for the third consecutive season.
The Jets were essentially eliminated from the playoffs during a five-game season that started the first week of November, giving him a pressure-free playground in which to romp. No one expected him to play well against the Bills when Rodgers went down Monday night. Football, when he was competent enough to beat the Eagles, against the Chiefs in primetime or against Stroud after being dug up by Robert Saleh. Wilson is the quarterback you want to play with house money when it’s someone else’s coins.