Getty New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson against the New England Patriots.
New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson has been getting raked over the coals after both his performance in Week 11 and his postgame comments after the loss. Few are defending the lack of accountability from the Jets youngster, but one film expert and quarterback analyst was willing to defend his game — and he brought visuals in doing so.
NBC Sports analyst and former NFL quarterback Chris Simms went viral on Twitter this afternoon (November 22) when he started a thread of film breakdowns that covered every Wilson passing play during the three-point performance against the New England Patriots last weekend.
Zach Wilson’s game vs the Pats was obviously not good. The postgame press conference was not a good look. The wild overreaction and cherry picking of his worst plays to conclude that he can never be a real QB is also not good.
Let’s go through each pass play from Sunday:
The introduction read: “Zach Wilson’s game vs the Pats was obviously not good. The postgame press conference was not a good look. The wild overreaction and cherry-picking of his worst plays to conclude that he can never be a real QB is also not good. Let’s go through each pass play from Sunday.”
Chris Simms Defends Zach Wilson in Viral Twitter Thread
Now, it’s important to note that Simms has been a Wilson believer since day one — even before he was drafted. It’s also important to note that the QB analyst has a great track record when it comes to scouting passing prospects.
Is he wrong from time to time? Of course, but he’s been right much more often and that’s no easy feat in the business of the NFL draft.
Back to the breakdown. We won’t go through every play in this article but we will touch on Simms’ thoughts on a few of the bigger mistakes and the clips that many have held under the microscope this week.
Before getting too far into the weeds, there was one common theme that was evident throughout and can be seen within the first few clips: Tremendous coverage from the Patriots secondary. Most NYJ passing plays were well-covered and watching this thread, that has not been talked about enough this week.
2- good coverage by Pats
You can blame the wide receivers and pass-catchers for this, you can blame offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur and the scheme, or you can blame Wilson for not making the necessary pre-snap adjustments — assuming he has permission to audible at the line of scrimmage.
One big “miss” from Wilson that was highlighted by many including Jets X-Factor’s Michael Nania was clip number 10 from Simms — where he didn’t see Denzel Mims wide open streaking toward the endzone. The ex-QB gave a different perspective on this and credited Bill Belichick for his pre-snap confusion. During this explanation, Simms did admit that it’s not necessarily an excuse for Wilson.
11- One of the few bright spots
The Tyler Conklin overthrow on third down was probably the play that Simms was the most unforgiving on. This one should have been intercepted, and the QB analyst called this error something that “bothers” him about Wilson right now, adding that he’s too talented to be sailing balls like that.
Chris Simms Takes Aim at Dan Orlovsky
Another fellow QB analyst and ex-NFL passer did rip Wilson for one play in particular, and we talked about it on Monday. Dan Orlovsky questioned whether or not “the QB know[s] the playbook” on a throw that appeared to frustrate wide receiver Garrett Wilson.
Simms saw that tape (No. 17) very differently and took a subtle shot at Orlovsky’s analysis in the process.
18- Tough one. The post pops open but by the time it does, pressure is in his face and he bails out to avoid a safety. Zach also got off the Conklin read too quickly
Simms concluded that New England won their one-on-one matchups versus the wide receiver routes that he sees — which were different from Orlovsky — voicing that you can’t “sit here and assume that the quarterback doesn’t know the playbook” from watching this piece of film.
There were several clips where Simms admitted that Wilson made a bad read or displayed poor execution — and the analyst made it clear from the start that this was one of the second-year prospect’s worst games overall — but the number of slides was less than you might expect considering the final result. According to Simms, videos number 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 20, 25, 28 and 30 were all either on the quarterback, or he should share in the blame. That’s only nine out of 30.
The rest were a combination of atrocious pass protection, wide receivers not getting separation, messy route concepts, and a lack of help from teammates. Maybe that explains all the postgame finger-pointing.