Inheriting his old job back after Aaron Rodgers‘ injury, Zach Wilson has submitted the kind of uninspiring efforts that led to his 2022 benching. Robert Saleh‘s continued support of the former No. 2 overall pick looks to again be creating an issue in the Jets’ locker room.
Asked about Wilson’s status as the team’s starter moving forward, Saleh dismissed the notion the scuffling quarterback could be benched. The third-year Jets HC indicated Wilson gives the team the best chance to win. These comments led to Joe Namath sounding off on Wilson’s poor play, and Saleh’s support looks to have created a locker-room issue for the team.
Saleh is coming off as a “Zach apologist” in the Jets’ locker room, ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini said during his Flight Deck podcast (h/t USA Today). New York’s defense, in particular, has shown frustration with the head coach’s Wilson support, with Cimini adding that members of the Jets’ offense are not exactly in lockstep with regards to Wilson backing. Garrett Wilson and Michael Carter could be seen holding animated discussions with Jets assistants on the sideline during the team’s Week 3 loss to the Patriots, and Cimini adds this frustration could reach a boiling point if the situation does not improve quickly.
This is not dissimilar to the fallout that led to Wilson being benched after a loss to the Patriots last season. Locker-room unrest, following Wilson’s postgame interview after a November 2022 loss in Foxborough, helped lead to Saleh benching Wilson for Mike White. The latter is now Tua Tagovailoa‘s backup in Miami, with the Jets devoting their efforts to adding a veteran starter. While the team’s Rodgers push succeeded, the Jets are not believed to have pursued a veteran backup, leaving Wilson in place despite his woeful two-year tenure. The Rodgers-centric plan has also been a point of contention among Jets players, per Sportskeeda’s Tony Pauline.
The Jets not having a backup plan behind Rodgers is among the gripes in the locker room presently, per Pauline, who adds players have also voiced concerns about the team’s game plans and Saleh’s overzealous leadership approach. The former San Francisco DC did walk back his Wilson support a bit this week, and the Jets do now have Trevor Siemian on their practice squad.
“We all acknowledge he has to play better. We all acknowledge that,” Saleh said of Wilson (via the New York Post’s Brian Costello). “He acknowledges it; teammates acknowledge it; he acknowledges it himself. But the key is to have confidence in yourself. You have to.
“… We’ve got a great locker room. Locker room is locked in. Is there frustration? Of course there is. Any time you lose two in a row there’s going to be frustration. It’s the NFL. When you lose, it feels like the world is caving in, when you win, everyone puts you on a pedestal, but there’s still a lot of confidence in the locker room.”
Wilson’s 26.7 QBR number sits ahead of only Justin Fields this season. The one-year BYU standout has completed just 52.4% of his passes — down from his 2021 and ’22 accuracy rates, thought the sample size is obviously much smaller — and is averaging just 5.6 yards per attempt. Rumors about the Jets moving on from Wilson circulated late last year, but team brass offered support for the young QB from a long-term perspective.
Wilson, 24, is bungling his last chance. It would not surprise to see Siemian given a shot, despite the ex-Broncos starter being a backup for the past six seasons and failing to beat out Jake Browning for the Bengals’ QB2 job in training camp. Tim Boyle, who will remain Wilson’s top backup this week, did start three games for the Lions in 2021. The ex-Jared Goff backup lost all three.
The latest Jets QB crisis certainly threatens the jobs of Saleh and GM Joe Douglas, who were in place when the team traded Sam Darnold to draft Wilson. The Jets did not have a backup plan in place in 2021, as Wilson struggled mightily, and not backstopping Rodgers with a more proven option is costing the team presently. It will be interesting to see if the Jets become more aggressive on the trade front if Wilson’s woes persist. Only Colt McCoy and Chad Henne came up as targets ahead of the Siemian addition.
why ruin a finally unified locker room for some bum whose best use in new york is finding milfs
The thing is, unless the Vikings make Kirk Cousins available, every available QB right now is also a bum. Some of the players might not be smart enough to realize and accept it, but their season ended on their first drive of the year.
All they can do is rotate in new bum QB’s throughout the year to please the players who can’t understand the reality of it.
You have to overpay. I bet if you offered Carolina a 4th for Dalton, they’d take it. They aren’t going anywhere this year and Dalton has been on a bunch of teams so he can learn a new offense pretty fast
Deerhunter Jets can’t afford to waste assets overpaying for a competent backup level QB just to possibly win a few more games. With Rodgers coming back next year, the focus has to be on building him a real O Line while maintaining the rest of their roster as best as they can.
They should’ve brought in a decent backup in FA while Dalton himself was out there, but now that they are here, they can’t sacrifice to slightly prop up a dead season.
The Jets could be 2-1 with a slightly better quarterback and I would say that Dalton is more than slightly better than Wilson. A 4th rounder isn’t exactly a sure thing draft pick. Most 4th rounders are expected to be fringe starters.
Thing is, I don’t think that Dalton is available. The Panthers don’t just want him to start, they want him to help their rookie starter. If they did decide to trade him, it would take more than the “normal” cost of a backup. Carolina does not have much incentive to give New York a deal-the Jets need that trade MUCH more than the Panthers.
The Jets just need some semblance of competent QB play. They’re not likely to win the division or be their best this year, but restoring the morale in the locker room would be easier than doing that. The players just want someone to not completely waste their efforts. I don’t think that it’s a “bad quarterback” problem; I think that it’s a “Zach Wilson” problem. At least, it is right now. Even competent but not great QB play will probably boost morale, which will probably very much improve the Jets’ capabilities.
Wilson sucks so let’s talk about the important things, Taylor Swift will be at the Chiefs-Jets game!!!!!!!11
It’s the Tony Romo-Jessica Simpson charade all over again…
Uhh, Romo will be in western New York working the Bills-Dolphins game for CBS.
Yes, I know. This was a reference to the Tony Romo-Jessica Simpson foolishness in the mid 2000s. If you remember it, then you remember that a lot of fans blamed Romo’s relationship for lack of production on the field. That was before social media, so celebrity worship was not as sycophantic as it is now, but the headlines were often about Simpson and Romo instead of the game.
It was quite annoying.
Great defense openly mocks QB Wilson. What is this, 2014? Everything is a rerun these days.
This Jets team is almost exactly the same as many drought era Bills teams. Literally, the same strengths and weaknesses.
Washington too.
The Bills had better uniforms though.
That’s debatable
I’m afraid Saleh will get fired if they lose more than 10 games and never benches Zach. The jets season is still salvageable.
I agree, but they seem to be playing coy about salvaging the season.
It’s pretty weird.
Tanking?
How much do you think Saleh has in the decision?
That’s a good point. Jets management obviously has a direction that they decided. But I doubt that Saleh is the sole decision maker here-whatever it is that the Jets are planning on doing, Saleh no matter what still only can say what he has been saying regarding Wilson. They may be exploring options or wanting Wilson to actually get better, but at the end of the day, Saleh still can only say what he has been saying.
Prediction – jets will draft another QB during the 2024 draft in rounds 1 or 2
And then they’ll piss off Rodgers by drafting a round 1 QB instead of a WR!
Can’t draft one in round 2
You’re correct – maybe not a 1 or 2…..unless they can swap a D-lineman for picks.
I’m wondering if they thought acquiring Aaron, the “I’m not a mentor”, might cause some ‘talent’ to rub off by osmosis and that being the reason to keep Wilson. Or the organization has had enough poor drafts they’re embarrassed by the failures. The way management activities of multiple teams has become a bit more public it appears ‘ownerships involvement’ is a bit archaic and self promotional. They think they’re genius because of the money they suck from fans and broadcasting but actually their arrogance is displayed by the product provided to audiences. It’s almost as if some are being ‘run’ like a China industry – ‘good for about a year then needs replacing’ – substandard and inferior using outdated and primitive techniques
In the current realm of this season I doubt any team would trade or allow ‘PS poaching’ of assets deemed of value for a guy no one considers PRO level. It’d have to be a free agent pickup or a CFL end of season player.
Wilson should have been moved on well before they traded for Rodgers. The players knows he simply doesn’t have the tools to lead them at this time. Keeping him around as Rodgers back up was a poor attempt to cover for a missed draft pick.
They should have dumped Wilson and kept Mike White. White isn’t great but he’s better than Wilson.
I thought that White was pretty good for what he had to work with last year. The Jets’ line was awful, and Wilson and Berrios were decent receivers. White, despite not getting first team reps, executed the offense very decisively for the mst part, and put up some good numbers. He was mostly pretty disciplined and precise. On the negative side, he could take a chance or two after getting overconfident from the good execution of easier plays, which resulted in a couple of turnovers. He’s also not mobile enough in the pocket. With a full offseason working with the ones and a good coordinator who uses a constructive passing offense built on opportunistic completions, White could be a good bridge starter type of player. Just my read on him in the LaFleur offense in New York.
Wilson, on the other hand, doesn’t have anything other than athleticism. That athleticism is not nearly enough to compensate for his poor decision making, lack of precision, and lack of confidence on the field. I don’t blame the Jets for wanting to see if he could be salvaged by veteran leadership. The thing is, though, that by having Wilson on your roster, you now need another quarterback by default to be the primary backup. That’s where the Jets screwed up. Wilson can still be there, but only as a project-not a failsafe. Again, I know that they were hoping that he got better in the offseason, but that was still a risk to gamble on and now they’re facing the consequences.
We haven’t added the other aspect of this, which is the Jets’ offensive line. It really is terrible. Wilson is already a bad QB; trotting out a line that is nothing but offensive is not going to allow him to do much right before he even gets the ball in his hands. More importantly, it’s not going to help any other QB, either. This was one aspect of the Jets’ reinvention was still incomplete when the season began. The team has no choice but to address this as soon as help becomes available (likely not until next year), no matter who is starting for New York.
I’m not a Jets fan but I watched that game last weekend. Zach Wilson looked absolutely horrible. Couldn’t hit guys that were open and didn’t throw it away when the pressure was on him. He looked lost. I can’t see how they can run him back out there again. I won’t waste my time if the Jets are on tv again.
Wilson did throw the ball away when pressure came. It’s the one thing he did well. Problem is, pressure was consistently there. You can’t throw it away 35 times. At some point you do have to hang onnan extra second and try to make something happen.
The Patriots had blankets on the receivers all game. The announces talked about it and showed replays that no one was open.
I’m not saying Wilson played well or that he should remain the starter. But people only blaming him are totally off base. Maybe Wilson and the rest of the vets should do a better job getting open. The offense isn’t going to change no matter who’s at the helm if they don’t get separation.
Football games are won and lost in the trenches.
Neither will I, and I am a Jets fan (although currently I’m on strike)
I absolutely HATE the Jets and Aaron Rogers (Lions fan), so I have no horse in the race here. But this Jets offense last week was absolutely HORRIBLE! Zach Wilson is clueless, and if I was Garrett Wilson, or anyone on that top notch defense, I would be getting PO’d at Salah as well. Someone commented that there are only bums left to choose from. But I guarantee that there are 10-15 backup QBs out there that could be traded for that can outplay Wilson right now. This guy is beyond terrible, and lacks what is needed between the ears to compete in this league.
Agree 100%. But what team is going to trade their backup QB and at what price?
Any team not contending will likely trade their back up qb. If their starter goes down it just ensures their chances of landing #1 overall increases.
4th 5th round pick would probably be the cost depending who it is.
Some teams have depth attack up qb position too
Dallas traded for Trey Lance. Call about Cooper Rush. Probably a 5th.
Steelers resigned Mason Rudolph. Mitch trubinsky probably for a 5th.
Wild card dark horse idea would be trade for stetson Bennett of the rams. Unlikely to happen but man would it be cool if he came in and just took over.
Davis Mills in Houston probably a 5th with Keenum there.
Guess no one told their defense that the 2023 Jets season is over. No matter what scrub they bring in to play QB they’ll be lucky to win 5 games.
Brissett, Dalton, hell Davis Mills is an upgrade on Wilson..
The GM & HC deserve to be fired for not (1) cutting Wilson in the offseason & (2) not bringing in a legit BU QB as well. The red rifle was available. Same for Minshew, and a host of other serviceable backups.
You can’t get more Jets than this!
They drafted Wilson, which was bad enough…but he didn’t really have an established offensive coach to help him or even a veteran back up. I think they ended up with Flacco back later that year.
Hackett was a very curious choice from the start for this year. Although that was “GM” Rodgers choice.
Despite all of this, it is a really great roster. Too bad it’s being wasted by strange choices.
Their O line needs help at both tackles spots as well as a new QB. I agree Hackett’s hiring is 100% on AR. I think that’s why GB was fine shipping him off. Tried to GM the team rather than QB them.
To be fair to Rodgers, he probably would have been an improvement as a GM in Green Bay’s particular case. I’m only semi-serious.
If I were a GM, I’d value a HoF’er’s opinion. But it would be my decision at the end of the day.
Ask Brian Gutekunst about that lol
Saleh is in a corner. He can’t pile on Wilson by saying “look, he’s our only option” since that undermines the player and the Offense itself as well as vaporized any possible leverage the franchise has in negotiating a future trade.
They’re already going to pay financially for blowing another top 3 pick on a QB who wasn’t close to NFL ready, so they need any leverage possible to recoup anything in a trade; especially since Wilson has not shown anything at all that holds any trade value.
Yeah I know I’m contradicting myself a little but, as of this moment, he’s not even considered a “steal at that price” if he’s traded for a late round supplemental draft pick.
He’s 100% “well, since we have to pay him anyway”
As for Rodgers, not even Mr Wonderful himself could whine if they drafted, for example, Caleb next draft. Having a player with that much talent sit behind a 1st Ballot HOFer for at least one season just makes sense regardless of any self inflated ego
No one is giving up a box of dirty jock straps for Zach Wilson now. It is harsh, you never know who is going to be able to make the mental leap to the NFL level. The Jets spun the wheel and lost.
They made the mistake much worse by not moving on from Wilson.
There’s no trade value to recoup, Zach Wilson is not an NFL quarterback and everyone who’s ever watched a game knows that. After his rookie contract ends he might get a gig as a 3rd stringer somewhere but after that he very well could be out of the league within 5 years
ffs, make a trade for Taysom Hill if you can lol
Trade for Cousins NOW!!
Give MN a #2 rounder and a 7th rounder!!!!!
MN saves $$$$ , gets a decent draft pick and puts themselves in a position to draft one of the 3 best QBS next year!!!! Plus MN gets to look that kid from BYU!!!! They find out what he’s capable of.
Vikings, and all other teams, already have scouts that look at various NFL talent. They know they don’t want Wilson.
They don’t have a 2nd round pick
Vikings aren’t tanking this year … yet.
What about trading Wilson for Taylor heinicke or even Gardner minshew. They would be a decent backup for Rodgers next year, and better than Wilson. The falcons, and colts shouldn’t ask for much.
They are going to ask for more that Wilson. His trade value is negative.
I’m not a Jets fan but it doesn’t really look like Saleh has much of a choice here. I get why the players are frustrated (because Wilson is terrible), but Saleh’s only option is to support Wilson while he’s still there.
The other options available aren’t much better (pretty much anyone IS better but we’re still scraping the bottom of the barrel here so that’s not saying a ton), so they’re better off trying to build up what tiny amount of confidence that Wilson has left, if there’s any at all. They’re basically stuck with him so it doesn’t make sense to publicly dump on him when he’s unfortunately still their best option. Adding someone like Dalton would make sense if he’s available, but there isn’t anyone out there that can really move the needle because just going from “awful” to “mediocre” still probably won’t be good enough to get them where they need to be. If they find a better option then they can kick Wilson to the curb, but that’s gonna be hard to do since decent quarterbacks are almost never available during the season.
The obvious question is “who”? Personally, I think Siemian is better then Wilson, but no one available is righting this ship.
It’s bad enough that Saleh has to take all the media heat but he shouldn’t have to worry about being stabbed in the back by other players on that roster. I wouldn’t blame him a bit if he said “You guys want to run the team then take over and good luck…I’m outta here”.
I dont get why everyone is all over Zach but they let the receivers slide. Zach is terrible but we know that. What else do you expect?
But none of the receivers, including Garrett Wilson, got open. Why no criticism for them? The Patriots blanketed the receivers last week without their #2, #3, and #4 corners. Gonzalez is good but a rookie in his 3rd game. Surely Wilson could do something, no? And Gonzalez wasn’t shadowing him, so he had the ither guys on him at times.
Wilson is terrible but it’s BS to only blame him. Their offensive performance last week was piss poor all around. The blame should be spread around as well.
I am surprised they haven’t signed Flacco yet. Not that he is any good but he is at least familiar with the team.
Nobody and I mean nobody saw this Dumpster fire coming a mile away.
Rodgers reallllllly helping out Wilson being in his ear. Anybody who thought this was going to work should be drug tested immediately- front office coaches and fans.
Anyways. Taylor Heinicke. Send Atlanta Wilson back to be their backup. Give em a 4th or something.
I thought it would work…as karma for Woody Johnson.
And it has.
It always does.
It, seemingly, always will.
Wilson has a 9.5 million cap hit this year and 11 million next year. Anybody that thinks they are trading him for help is crazy. No team is taking that financial hit for a player who doesn’t have it.
I never would have thought that it would only take a couple seasons and all three of Wilson, Trey Lance, and Justin Fields would be looked at as complete busts.
At least Lance hasn’t looked terrible just yet..lol Mack Jones looks to be the most stable of the 1st Round QBs thus far, and even he has looked extremely rocky.
Even Trevor Lawrence hasn’t quite lived up to expectations, and he was supposed to be as close to the next superstar QB prospect as it gets.
With these QBs almost all falling below expectations and Purdy looking anything but irrelevant, it just goes to show what a crapshoot the NFL Draft has become.
Then, people say we’ll Purdy had a ton of experience, and that’s the key to drafting a franchise QB along with getting paired with a good coach. Then, the Colts go and draft Anthony Richardson, and he’s supposed to be extremely raw, he is supposed to need to sit for a season or even two, and then he comes out looking mighty dynamic already…lol
You just never really know until they play I suppose
Everyone laughed at the Packers when they drafted Love while they still had a very productive starter in Rodgers but that strategy doesn’t look foolish now does it? Teams that wait until their starter is completely out of gas before looking to draft a replacement often are disappointed with the results.
People hated that pick not because of Love necessarily, but because the Packers blew their chance to help win a Super Bowl. That draft overall was terrible-Dillon was the only player taken to offer any production until this year. Taking a quarterback and having him sit isn’t always bad, but it does depend on the quarterback. Love has clearly benefitted. He moves just like Rodgers at times, and you can tell that he’s studied his predecessor in a positive way. Not all QBs will do that, and some of them (like, say, Richardson in Indianapolis) need playing time to compensate for a lack of experience. However, it’s still not a guarantee. Love looked pretty bad against Detroit last night. He has a ways to go to prove that he was worth that pick.
The Packers, though, definitely wasted that draft in an era where they made two consecutive NFC Championships that they failed to capitalize on. Teams should balance between competing now and building for the future-the Packers did not, and missed their shot at a championship (a) in the last decade. The Jets would be wise to learn from that example-even with Rodgers, their team is not complete. Taking Rodgers’ successor wouldn’t be bad on its face of a player fell to them, but they also need to bear in mind that the current team needs some help, too.
Joe Namath had a losing record and consistently lead the league in interceptions, throwing 47 more INT’s than TD’s. With the exception of his Super Bowl run his career was otherwise terrible and he should be nowhere near the hall of fame.
Finally someone that maybe remembers ‘broadway’ and his flamboyant ineptitude!
Namath was Rex Grossman long before Sexy Rexy was born.
What’s he supposed to say? They threw all their eggs in the Aaron Rodgers basket and that backfired on them… the best available option on the roster is this “milf Hunter” as someone above referred to him above. You really want your head coach to go out there and be like, “yeeeeeeeah he sucks, but it’s what we got.”
Of course he voiced his support…
Manufactured Crisis: White Male Sports Media going after the New York Jets.
Genuine Crisis: Denver Broncos lose 70-20 in Miami after choking away 2 winnable home games.
Genuine Crisis 2: Chicago Bears whupped so bad in Kansas City, Fox dumps out of the game after halftime.
‘White male’?
Haven’t watched many NFL ‘video reports’?
Get over the ‘color’ here, we’re all just fans of Gridiron football