Get Right Spot? Jets Sticking With Zach Wilson Vs. Skidding Patriots

There isn’t a player better suited to help the New England Patriots break their two-game losing skid to open the season than Zach Wilson.

Yes, the guy who plays quarterback for the New York Jets.

The Patriots are in a rough spot entering Week 3, needing a win to avoid their first 0-3 start since Bill Belichick’s first season in 2000. They’ll look to break their current slide against the Jets, who will start Wilson under center.

“That’s probably more of a question for (Jets general manager Joe Douglas), but I don’t think so,” New York head coach Robert Saleh told reporters Monday when asked if the Jets would consider adding a quarterback, per a team-provided transcript.

New York seems committed to the third-year signal-caller, with Saleh repeatedly echoing that Wilson will remain the starter. That wasn’t the Jets’ plan entering the season, however, as they traded for four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers in the offseason but saw him go down with a torn Achilles just four plays into the season.

Wilson got his first start of the season in Week 2 against the Dallas Cowboys and looked exactly how you would expect he’d look against one of the best defenses in the NFL. The 24-year-old completed just 12 of 27 passes for 170 yards and one touchdown while adding three more interceptions to his ever-growing list.

Despite that, the Jets seemed pleased with his performance.

“He threw a couple of really good (passes), took care of the ball,” Saleh told reporters of Wilson. “He scrambled when he needed to, he stepped up in the pocket when he needed to. I thought he did a really nice job. Did it get away from him in the fourth quarter when I felt like he was trying to make a play with us being down three scores? Yeah, he made a couple of throws that he didn’t need to make. But up until then, I felt like if we could have just got them the damn ball and gave them some more opportunities, I think people would have seen he was playing pretty well, up until like I said when it was garbage time and he was trying to force the ball.”

The Jets’ confidence in Wilson should be mirrored by the Patriots’ defense, who have given the QB fits throughout his young career.

Wilson is 0-4 against New England in his career, completing just 51% of his passes for 693 yards, two touchdowns and seven interceptions. That is all in just over 13 quarters of play, in which he was sacked 11 times and had 47 yards rushing. In Wilson’s last start against the Patriots, the Jets averaged 2.9 inches of offense per play in the second half. That’s not good.

The Patriots have their own issues to figure out, but there’s no better player to do that against than Wilson.