Getty The Zach Wilson vs. Mac Jones debate should dominate Jets-Patriots outings for the next few seasons.
Here we are one season into Zach Wilson’s NFL career and many New York Jets fans are asking the same questions that they had about Sam Darnold after his rookie campaign.
Were his early struggles tied to his situation, or skill set? Did the Jets choose right at No. 2 overall? Is Wilson the long-term solution at quarterback?
It’s become a very polarizing topic among supporters and no matter where you land on this, the only accurate answer is that it’s too early to tell. Some have stopped at nothing to bury the BYU product while others have touted his improvement and his potential.
Fans may get more of an answer to these questions in year two, but they probably won’t truly know for sure until the end of 2023 in all honesty. For now, it’s reassuring every time the football experts back our guy and ex-NFL GM Randy Mueller did just that in a recent interview with Brian Mazique of Heavy on Patriots.
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Mueller: ‘We See Big Things for Zach Wilson’
Mueller joined Mazique to talk Pats football and the question was actually more about Mac Jones than Wilson, as the Heavy reporter asked where the expert would put the Alabama product “in relation to the rest of the 2021 class,” based on future potential.
Unfortunately for New Englanders, the response did not go as pro-Patriot as some might have hoped. Mueller voiced:
All of the experts, per say, said that Mac would be ready the quickest to play. I don’t think that changes now and maybe this is just me, but the other side of that coin is — he was ready to play, he played really good especially in the first half of the season — but then I just felt a little change in momentum coming down the stretch. And maybe that’s just me, but I felt a little change in momentum which gave me the read that the ceiling is a little lower for Mac. That people started to figure out the Patriots a little bit. That he’s not Josh Allen.
Then the ex-GM brought up Wilson while speaking on the division. “There’s a lot of people that are questioning Zach Wilson’s choice,” he stated. “I think the football people would probably still make that choice again because we see big things for Zach Wilson at the end of the rainbow.”
It was a pure, unadulterated show of support for the Jets QB, something Gang Green fans seldom hear from national outlets or talking heads.
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Thank You, Mr. Mueller
It feels great to finally get some vindication on Wilson, who showed just as much as fellow-rookies Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, and more than Trey Lance who basically red-shirted his first campaign.
Was it a roller coaster ride in year one? 100 percent, but this debate goes back to the age-old football theory of ceiling vs. game-readiness.
Mueller went on to explain that Jones is more of a “processor” that’s greatest strengths are “between his ears.” The future doubt about the Patriots quarterback stems from his physical attributes — size, athleticism, arm strength, mobility — not the mental ones.
Wilson has all of those traits and more, drawing Allen comparisons as a rookie because of it. The key is honing that potential and there’s no question that this is the tricky part.
Before his injury, Wilson gave fans a taste of what we hope was rock bottom. Granted, his receivers dropped passes and his offensive line struggled to protect but the youngster was far from perfect himself.
He held the ball too long, missed short-range targets, struggled to read defenses, and tried to be the hero more often than not. Outside of the Tennessee Titans game and parts of Week 1, Wilson hurt the offense more than he helped it.
Having said that, his willingness to learn from mistakes was his most appealing trait for me, which showed during an unexpected 180 in the turnover department. The late Greg Knapp once labeled Wilson as a “fast study” before he tragically passed, and the knowledgeable QB coach appears to have nailed the initial read.
Knapp told the media at the time: “You gotta expect mistakes from anyone that’s starting [for the] first time, in any profession for that matter, and I’m seeing very minimal same mistakes twice. So he learns quickly from his mistakes and that’s impressive to see from a young guy.”
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