Joe Flacco will start at quarterback for the New York Jets in Week 18 against the Miami Dolphins.
It’s been that kind of season behind center for the Jets, who benched second-year signal-caller Zach Wilson in favor of Mike White, only to see the latter reaggravate a ribs injury in Week 17 against the Seattle Seahawks.
“I just want to get (Wilson) to the offseason so we can start and attack the plan that we’ve been building,” Jets head coach Robert Saleh told reporters Friday of the decision to start Flacco over Wilson this Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. “Putting him out there right now, it’s not going to do him any good, it’s not going to do anyone any good. For him, for Zach, it’s all about ’23.”
The Jets have nothing to play for Sunday, as they’ve already been eliminated from playoff contention thanks to five straight losses. But Saleh still expects his players to fight hard against the Dolphins, starting with Flacco, a 15-year NFL veteran who turns 38 later this month.
“Joe is like a Ford pickup truck,” Saleh said, per Antwan V. Staley of the New York Daily News. “You may not appreciate him in September, October or November because there’s nothing flashy in his game. But when December and January hit and the weather is kind of (crappy), he’s still freaking rolling. That’s Joe.”
Flacco, who spent 11 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens and one with the Denver Broncos before joining the Jets ahead of the 2020 campaign, will be making his fourth start of the year. The Jets have made significant strides this season, their second under Saleh, but inconsistency from the quarterback position has doomed their chances of making any serious noise in the AFC East.
“It is challenging,” Saleh acknowledged Friday of New York’s continued QB uncertainty. “Some of it obviously because of injury, but it’s the head of the snake. And if you’re not getting consistent play or consistent movement from the head of the snake, it’s not going to be good.
“We’ve got to be better as coaches. There’s some circumstances for the quarterback that just made it impossible for them to be consistent and then there’s some things that were self-inflicted. But it’s not in a vacuum. It’s not one thing. There’s a lot of different things that have contributed to it over the course of the year and it’s something that we’re gonna get fixed in the offseason. It has to.”
The Jets enter Sunday’s matchup against the Dolphins with a 7-9 record. Miami, which sits at 8-8, needs to win and for the New England Patriots to lose to the Buffalo Bills to reach the NFL postseason.
