This was the major pivot week for New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh. Who would start at quarterback?
For the first time since suffering a PCL strain vs the New England Patriots, Jets rookie quarterback Zach Wilson returned to practice.
While in his stead Mike White has performed more than admirably delivering one of the best wins of the season in an upset bid vs the Cincinnati Bengals.
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Riding the Hot Hand
On Wednesday’s open availability with the media, coach Saleh was a man of his word and shared the news that White would remain the starting quarterback in the Week 10 matchup versus the Buffalo Bills.
“Mike White is starting. We had a feeling on Monday that with Zach’s knee that he wouldn’t be ready to go. Mike got all of his strength back and had no residual effects from Thursday so we’re going with White.”
Coach Saleh announces Mike White will start at QB this week against Buffalo.
The former BYU passer is still recovering from that PCL strain and is in the midst of the third week of what is a two to four week injury.
Joe Flacco will serve as the No. 2 for the Jets in this game versus the Bills. It’ll be the first game he has been active since being traded from the Philadelphia Eagles.
Despite Josh Johnson’s heroic efforts vs the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday Night Football, he will likely remain on the practice squad this week.
Connor Hughes of The Athletic explained the rationale behind this is because they don’t have the roster flexibility to have four quarterbacks on the active roster because of all of their recent injuries.
A Change in Tune
On Monday Saleh said that when Wilson is healthy he’ll be the starting quarterback. That was a stark change from the postgame presser vs the Bengals where he said “anything is possible” in terms of White being able to continue to play if he performed well.
Well on Wednesday Saleh backpedaled on those comments instead saying, “I think it is going to happen organically if Mike does phenomenal like we think he’ll do that’s awesome. To answer the question I think it’ll all take care of itself we just got to let it play out.”
That now leaves the door open for White’s Cinderella story to continue.
The Bills are a heavy favorite (+13) over the Jets on Sunday. If White orchestrates another surprising win, it seems like the green and white will continue to ride the hot hand.
Although if he flounders it’ll make things pretty easy to shift things back to the No. 2 overall pick from the 2021 NFL draft.
This is a first-world problem most Jets fans weren’t prepared for heading into this season. White has done a phenomenal job of simply running the offense, going through reads, and getting the ball to the open guy.
If he continues to do that, this Jets offense should be just fine against a very challenging opponent versus Buffalo.
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Robert Saleh Makes Final Decision on Jets Starting Quarterback vs. Bills