The New York Jets added veteran quarterback Trevor Siemian to the practice squad on Tuesday, September 26. However, he won’t be making his 2023 green and white debut in Week 4 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Head coach Robert Saleh told the media on Wednesday that he will be “inactive” for the game. That means Zach Wilson will remain QB1 and Tim Boyle will be QB2 this week.
Saleh Shares His Initial Thoughts on Siemian Addition to Jets QB Room
“Obviously he has a lot of games under his belt,” Saleh said. “He is a quick learner, a quick study from my understanding. So just giving him the ability to come onto the practice squad and help us out. [That] was the best decision for us.”
Although it doesn’t appear that he will have to stay there for very long.
Saleh already admitted after the 15-10 loss to the New England Patriots in Week 3 that he has no desire to give Boyle any QB1 reps in practice. It seems inevitable that Siemian will eventually leapfrog Boyle for the QB2 role at some point.
Saleh was asked how long he thinks it’ll take for Siemian to get up to speed with the playbook.
“We’ll see. Every case is different so it’s case-by-case.”
At a minimum, he won’t be in the picture for the upcoming matchup this week. That would have been a stretch considering he joined the team on Tuesday and they play a game on Sunday.
However, there is a path where he could jump to the 53-man roster ahead of the Week 5 matchup versus the Denver Broncos.
Siemian spent the first three years of his career with the Broncos after being selected with the No. 250 overall pick in the seventh round back in 2015.
He appeared in 26 games and made 24 starts during that span of time. Siemian went 13-11 as a starting quarterback. That tenure was highlighted by a Pro Bowl-eligible campaign in 2016, but he declined the invite because of an ailing shoulder injury.
Revenge game?
Saleh Talks Wilson and Looking Forward
Saleh has backed Wilson as his “unquestioned quarterback” this week and has gone to bat for him in any and every media opportunity that he’s required to appear for.
On “The Michael Kay Show” he passionately defended Wilson and said, “Zach is a good young man, he works his tail off, he stands for everything you’d want out of a human, you’d want your daughter to marry the young man.”
#Jets HC Robert Saleh said no one in the locker room dislikes Zach Wilson or ‘lacks confidence’ in him, ‘Zach is a good young man, he works his tail off, he stands for everything you’d want out of a human, you’d want your daughter to marry the young man’ 📻 @TMKSESPN #TakeFlight…
While you wouldn’t expect anything less out of your head coach some have accused him of going too far. Defending him that strongly and consistently saying he isn’t the reason you’re losing games can and has rubbed some of his Jets teammates the wrong way, per Rich Cimini of ESPN.
Saleh seemed to be listening to some of that criticism because during his media availability on Wednesday, September 27 he addressed that fine line of “between being blindly positive & actually having positive accountability.”
Some interesting comments from #Jets HC Robert Saleh on Zach Wilson: ‘we all acknowledge he has to play better, we all acknowledge that, he acknowledges that, his teammates acknowledge that’ + the key is to ‘have confidence in yourself’ + he also added that we have to keep it…
Last season Wilson had an issue with confidence. He would allow the outside noise, the booing, and bad play to affect him. It got so bad last year that the Jets decided to bench him so he could get away from it all.
Saleh has been trying to pump up his guy throughout the offseason and since he has taken over as the starter to keep that energy high.
However, if he does that too much some of his players may see the double standard in accountability. If Wilson played any other position and has played as poorly as he has, he would have been replaced already.
It’ll be a fine line to watch for Wilson because the pressure is now on with a new quarterback waiting in the wings.
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Jets Make Final Call on QB Trevor Siemian Ahead of Chiefs Game