Jets Coach Admits Possible Misstep With Zach Wilson Progression

The Jets have an uncertain future at the quarterback position.

New York publicly has supported Zach Wilson and is not willing to give up on the 2021 No. 2 overall pick. But the Jets reportedly do not foresee Wilson having a future with the team.

Options like Jimmy Garoppolo or Derek Carr could become available in free agency, but speculation about the position has led fans to wonder what went wrong with Wilson. Offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur offered his theory.

“It kind of is what it is in 2023,” LaFleur told reporters, per SNY video. “People don’t want to wait. They want the instant gratification of these rookies, these second-year guys to be superstars and understandably so. You get why this is a highly competitive environment. I use an example of what’s going on in Green Bay right now. Obviously, it was Brett Favre. Aaron (Rodgers) sat for I think five years and Jordan Love’s kind of going through it right now. I’m not there at practice. I can kind of just go off what I hear, just how much improvement he’s had for three years of sitting there, watching Aaron and going through the scout team and all that.

“That is his path, and we’ll see what holds for Jordan. Similar to Zach, in hindsight, it probably would have benefitted just to sit back and learn a little bit and watch a veteran do it and grow in this league in the back seat watching and getting better in practice, getting better through scout team and all that. But again, that wasn’t the course we went, and from here, we got to pick up the scraps. We got to pick up the work.”

The Jets had Joe Flacco and Mike White on the roster last season, so it appears LaFleur believes one of them should have started over Wilson.

Things would not have transpired the way they did for his brother Matt and the Green Bay Packers, but Wilson’s future will remain up in the air until the start of the 2023 season. Mike White will start for New York in its Week 18 game against the Miami Dolphins.