After a rocky start, New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson closed out his rookie season by showing progress.
No, the numbers weren’t off the charts but the eye test and turnover rate down the stretch produced some dramatic changes from the early weeks. These tangible signs of improvement impressed many NFL experts around the league and one more big name in the industry hitched himself to Wilson’s wagon on March 4.
The “Good Morning Football” talking point stemmed from a recent Mike McDaniel interview at the combine, where the new Miami Dolphins head coach touted Tua Tagovailoa’s “untapped potential.”
Co-host Kay Adams posed the question to her panel: Which young quarterback has the “most untapped potential in the NFL today?”
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Schrager Backs Wilson
Although the first two responses of the GMFB segment were Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts and San Francisco 49ers prospect Trey Lance, senior NFL writer Peter Schrager — a mainstay on the program — settled on the promising BYU product.
“Tua Tagovailoa has the most untapped potential of any young QB in NFL today”
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“Trey Lance went third in the draft, I’m going to go with the guy that was taken one pick before him — Zach Wilson with the Jets,” Schrager began. He continued:
I thought Zach Wilson was just thrown into the fire, immediately without a real veteran quarterback behind him. It was the same summer that his quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp, unfortunately, passed away while they were working on a plan [of] how to work with Zach Wilson. The coaching, we gotta see what happens but [offensive coordinator] Mike LaFleur has worked with [Jimmy] Garoppolo for years and also has been in that San Francisco 49ers organization. Got to think that year two, Zach Wilson — who came along at the end. He was good in those last few weeks of the season, remember that Tampa game he went toe-to-toe with [Tom] Brady. He’s got a crazy arm, a crazy arm, but he didn’t know how to really read a defense and he didn’t know how to read an offense last year. Thrown into the fire, it wasn’t until Joe Flacco came as his backup that he really started to feel a little bit of confidence and seemed to look the part. I think every Jets fan knows, the month of December is what you’re looking at and that potential started to reveal itself.
The GMFB co-host finally concluded: “I’m gonna say Zach Wilson — who if he had thrown last night would have had a better arm than all those [2022 combine] quarterbacks, there just was no combine last year — he still has that cannon and can do those Aaron Rodgers-like things, the Jets took him second overall to justify that.”
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Zach Wilson: The Polarizing Face of the Franchise
This quarterback situation in New York is extremely unusual. Generally, comments like this would cause a fanbase to rejoice. At least 50-60% of Jets faithful will celebrate Schrager’s opinion, no doubt, but a good amount of supporters will scoff at it.
By now, most of us know the raw talent and we know about the statistics — low passing yardage per game with one turnover and zero interceptions in his last five outings — and we either believe in Wilson or we don’t.
Rarely, a contingent of a fanbase is so vehemently against a prospect that has just begun his career, but some might argue the circumstances that led to this divide had very little to do with the quarterback himself.
.@Djbienaime asked #Jets GM Joe Douglas how much of a priority will it be to add more weapons for Zach Wilson (@ZachWilson), ‘if we can put pieces around him to make sure he has a lead instead of playing from behind that will put him in a better position to succeed’: #NFLCombine
Not all Jets fans wanted to move on from Sam Darnold. During his time here, he could do no wrong in the eyes of the crowd that once prayed the organization might draft him.
Adam Gase and a poorly constructed roster shouldered the blame for the former face of the franchise and while I don’t disagree that Darnold got a bad deal, I can’t blame Wilson for that either.
There’s also the group that wanted Justin Fields — I was actually one of them before the draft. The Chicago Bears prospect had worse statistics than Wilson in year one but I wonder how much criticism he might have received if he had ended up in New York.
Would Fields optimism be met with the same intensity? The Mike White dramatics only fanned the flames and now we have an extremely rare situation heading into year two — an exciting young quarterback that receives just as much doubt as applause.
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Jets’ Zach Wilson Named Top Young QB in Key Area by Senior NFL Writer